The Bookshelf

In keeping with this windy theme, I would like to share one of my favorite books, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

This is a true “word-of-mouth” novel. Periodically a library patron approaches the desk to see if we have this book. Their cousin or neighbor or fellow book club member has told them to read it. It is also very good listened to as an audiobook…you are right there in post World War II Barcelona with Daniel, a young boy who is in despair because he can no longer remember his dead mother’s face and who is taken by his father to the Cemetery of Lost Books to choose a book that is otherwise likely to be forgotten. His father cautions him that once he chooses a book, it is his responsibility to protect it. Daniel chooses The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax and ultimately discovers that someone is methodically destroying each and every one of Carax’s books. Becoming obsessed with finding out who and why, Daniel soon realizes his life is beginning to strangely mirror that of Carax and his search has opened a veritable Pandora’s box of secrets of murder, doomed love and madness.