The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

This book was recommended to me by my friend Jayne and I am sooooo thankful!! The Shadow of the Wind is an amazing book, and I would go so far as to say it is now in my top 5 favorites!! I owe you one Jayne, so I dedicate this post to you!! :)

So, why is this one of my favorite books? It has an amazing story line, lots of twists and turns, and it is about books (in a roundabout way)!! It was originally written in Spanish and has recently been translated to English. I am absolutely amazed at the descriptions of characters, places, etc. Considering it is a translation, all I can say is WOW!! I would not say it is a quick read, but it is definitely a must read!!

And, for those of you interested . . . here's the description that I got from Barnes and Noble's website . . .

In the postwar calm of 1945 Barcelona, ten-year-old Daniel Sempere awakes from a nightmare and, to his horror, realizes that he can no longer remember the face of his deceased mother. In an effort to divert his son's attention from this sharply felt fear and loss, his father, a rare-book dealer, first swears Daniel to secrecy, then takes him to a clandestine library where Daniel is allowed to select a single book.

Entranced, Daniel picks a novel, The Shadow of the Wind, written by the enigmatic Julián Carax, who is rumored to have fled Spain under murky circumstances, and later died. As Daniel begins to search for other works by his favorite new author, he discovers that they have all been destroyed -- torched by a mysterious stranger obsessed with obliterating Carax's literary legacy from the face of the earth.

Though Daniel's copy of Carax's novel is the last in existence, he's unwilling to part with it at any price and dedicates himself to revealing the truth about Carax. Aided in his quest by the good-humored Fermín Romero de Torres, a former beggar whose "difficult life-lessons" enable him to keep a step ahead of trouble, Daniel begins to uncover a tale of murder, madness, and secrets that might best be forgotten. And as he wends his way through Barcelona society, both high and low, he comes to realize that his own part in The Shadow of the Wind is more than that of a mere reader.