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Loading... The Shadow of the Wind (2001)by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
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I have read a lot of books. I have read a few great books & a smaller number of extraordinary books. This - like The Moor's Last Sigh and The God of Small Things - is a great and extraordinary book, unlike any I have ever read and as great as I can imagine. ( ) Right after the war, a father takes his young son Daniel to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, where he finds a book that is to be his to remember. It takes him on a life long journey to find who the mysterious author, Julian Corax, is and what happened to him and all his books. Meanwhile mysterious people start coming into his life threating him to push him off the story. It was a fascinating read. it was kind of like a soap opera within a soap opera, with the life and loves and missed loves of Daniel almost paralleling those of Julian. The only "disappointing" thing I found was that the Cemetery was only touch upon briefly, I wanted more. Perhaps in the subsequent books. Recommend Quotes : In a shop window, I saw a Philips poster announcing the arrival of a new messiah, the TV set. Some predicted that this particular contraption was going to change our lives forever and turn us all into creatures of the future, like the Americans. "People are evil". "Not evil," Fermin objected. "Moronic, which isn't quite the same thing. Evil presupposes a moral decision, intention, and some forethought. A moron or a lout, however, doesn't stop to think or reason. He acts on instinct, like an animal, convinced that he's doing good, that he's always right, and sanctimoniously proud to go around fucking up, if you'll excuse the French, anyone he perceives to be different from himself, be it because of skin colour, creed, language, nationality or, as in the case of Don Federico, his leisure pursuits." Het verhaal sleepte me mee, het taalgebruik was mooi en de sfeer van een treurig en angstig Barcelona vond ik erg goed weergegeven. Het hele boek ademde een sfeer uit van verval, waarin Daniel een van de weinige was die hoop had op betere tijden. Prachtig, ontroerend en bij vlagen wat beklemmend boek. Ik vond de karakters interessant. Daniel is dan wellicht geen type waarvan je zou denken dat hij de held van het verhaal zou worden, maar juist dat maakte het voor mij fascinerend. Ik denk dat als er meteen wat informatie te vinden was geweest, hij al snel af zou hebben gehaakt in zijn zoektocht, maar juist het gebrek aan informatie, en de dreiging die er uitgaat van Fuméro zorgen ervoor dat hij totaal geïntrigeerd raakt. Hij heeft er ook wel de leeftijd voor om geobsedeerd door iets te raken. De karakters zijn werkelijk allemaal aangeslagen door de oorlog en door het leven in het algemeen. Alleen Fuméro had volgens mij echt plezier in die oorlog. De trieste sfeer die rondom de karakters hangt, bijv. ook rond bijrolspelers als de vader van Nuria, was erg goed geraakt. Als er meer diepgang in de karakters had gezeten, dan was dat volgens mij ten koste gegaan van de snelheid van het verhaal en dat was funest geweest aangezien het gewoon al geen snel verhaal is. La Sombra del Viento Carlos Ruiz Zafón Publicado: 2001 | 472 páginas Novela Intriga Serie: El Cementerio de los Libros Olvidados #1 /sL2QN79Y_ZG4 Un amanecer de 1945 un muchacho es conducido por su padre a un misterioso lugar oculto en el corazón de la ciudad vieja: El Cementerio de los Libros Olvidados. Allí, Daniel Sempere encuentra un libro maldito que cambiará el rumbo de su vida y le arrastrará a un laberinto de intrigas y secretos enterrados en el alma oscura de la ciudad.La Sombra del Viento es un misterio literario ambientado en la Barcelona de la primera mitad del siglo XX, desde los últimos esplendores del Modernismo a las tinieblas de la posguerra. I didn't especially like the writing style, where large chunks of the story are filled in by various characters who unceremoniously spill it all out in monologues; I prefer dialogue and action to reveal the story. The protagonist wasn't relatable, he seemed only half-formed when compared to other characters and so I only cared half as much about whatever happened with him. The supporting cast, specifically Fermin and the father, were the characters who actually felt real and worth caring about. At the end of the day it's all about whether or not the book was a good read. For me, the good bits just did not stretch far enough to make the rest of the book worth it.
It's lowdown and lazy, but here goes: ''Gabriel García Márquez meets Umberto Eco meets Jorge Luis Borges'' for a sprawling magic show, exasperatingly tricky and mostly wonderful, by the Spanish novelist Carlos Ruiz Zafón. The three illustrious meeters must surely have been drinking and they weave about a little, but steady remarkably as the pages go by. Als een boekverkoper zijn tienjarige zoon meeneemt naar het paleisachtige, geheimzinnige Kerkhof der Vergeten Boeken, raakt Daniel betoverd door De schaduw van de wind. Hij neemt zich voor achter de identiteit van de schrijver Julian Carax te komen. Sterker nog: hij lijkt het leven van deze mysterieuze man te gaan leven. Tegen de achtergrond van het Barcelona van de Burgeroorlog en Franco ontrolt zich een fascinerend verhaal, of feitelijk vele verhalen over figuren die zich in de nabijheid van Carax ophielden én mensen rondom Daniel. De structuur van het verhaal is als een Russische pop, die eindeloos veel kleinere poppen in zich heeft verstopt. Carlos Ruiz Zafon (1964) heeft een fantasierijke, knappe roman geschreven vol avontuur, spanning, en liefde, die je in één adem uitleest. Zijn taalgebruik is prachtig, zijn belezenheid groot en de vertaling is vloeiend. Velen zullen van deze onderhoudende, intelligente roman genieten. The Shadow of the Wind is a dream date for those who love books.... For fans of Jorge Luis Borges, Umberto Eco and other writers who craft twisting and turning plots with complex characterization, The Shadow of the Wind is not to be missed. Belongs to SeriesBelongs to Publisher SeriesIs contained inIs abridged inHas as a reference guide/companionHas as a supplementHas as a student's study guideAwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
A boy named Daniel selects a novel from a library of rare books, enjoying it so much that he searches for the rest of the author's works, only to discover that someone is destroying every book the author has ever written. Barcelona, 1945-just after the war, a great world city lies in shadow, nursing its wounds, and a boy named Daniel awakes on his eleventh birthday to find that he can no longer remember his mother's face. To console his only child, Daniel's widowed father, an antiquarian book dealer, initiates him into the secret of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a library tended by Barcelona's guild of rare-book dealers as a repository for books forgotten by the world, waiting for someone who will care about them again. Daniel's father coaxes him to choose a volume from the spiraling labyrinth of shelves, one that, it is said, will have a special meaning for him. And Daniel so loves the novel he selects, The Shadow of the Wind by one Julian Carax, that he sets out to find the rest of Carax's work. To his shock, he discovers that someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book this author has written. In fact, he may have the last one in existence. Before Daniel knows it his seemingly innocent quest has opened a door into one of Barcelona's darkest secrets, an epic story of murder, magic, madness and doomed love. And before long he realizes that if he doesn't find out the truth about Julian Carax, he and those closest to him will suffer horribly. As with all astounding novels, The Shadow of the Wind sends the mind groping for comparisons- The Crimson Petal and the White? The novels of Arturo Peacute-Reverte? Of Victor Hugo? Love in the Time of Cholera ?-but in the end, as with all astounding novels, no comparison can suffice. As one leading Spanish reviewer wrote, ldquo. The originality of Ruiz Zafoacute's voice is bombproof and displays a diabolical talent. The Shadow of the Wind announces a phenomenon in Spanish literature. An uncannily absorbing historical mystery, a heart-piercing romance, and a moving homage to the mystical power of books, The Shadow of the Wind is a triumph of the storyteller's art. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)863.64Literature Spanish and Portuguese Spanish fiction 20th Century 1945-2000LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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