Great short-short that adds another layer of fun details onto the Cemetery of Forgotten Books book series. ( )

This short story by Carlos Ruiz Zafón tells the story about the origin of The Cemetery of Forgotten Books. It's a great story. So why only 3 stars? Because It's a bloody short story and not 300-500 pages thick book instead. It feels like reading a summary of a book.



Mental note to self: When you are writing a review on your mother's computer in the future. Save a draft for unexpected "Blue Screen of Death" incidents... ( )

July 10 is marked on my calendar. Carlos Ruiz Zafon's latest installment in the series that began with the magical book "The Shadow of the Wind" comes out on that day. I can't wait to dive into it---and this book, in addition to the short story "The Rose of Fire," gives us a preview of what must be the first chapter.

The Rose of Fire begins even before the beginning. It tells a fairy tale of sorts, set in the heart and hypocrisy of the Spanish Inquisition and explores the nature of true goodness in the face of proclaimed virtue and in the process sets the stage for the creation of the Cemetery of Lost Books which is the heart of all of these novels.

Not a very long story---a preface to a story to come, really. But the language.... Zafon can write as few can. His wonderful characters are like those of Dickens or Dumas, as is the tremendous heart and biting commentary of his prose. Mix that with the dark Gothic sensibility of Poe and you have a sense of the flavor.

As these books are originally written in Spanish, the translator, Lucia Graves, should also be congratulated on her translation which (based on what friends of mine say who are fluent in both languages--I am merely conversational in Spanish) convey and retain the magic of the original Spanish editions. ( )

A quick short story, (the Kindle version is free!) concerning The Cemetery of Forgotten Books and how it came to be. I enjoyed it, but was disappointed when it ended at 37%. ( )

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The Rose of Fire is 'book' #2.5 in The Cemetery of Forgotten Books series.

A lovely short story by Zafón that was written to be a teaser for The prisoner of heaven but as with all the stories in the series, it doesn't really matter where you read it. It's set in Spain during the Inquisition and tells the origin of the cemetery of forgotten books. My only complaint is that it's so short! How long do we have to wait till the fourth and final book? I would really recommend this story to all who enjoyed the books.

You can download the ebook free on ebook retailers' websites. ( )