Summary | Excerpt | Reading Guide | Reviews | Beyond the Book | Read-Alikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio
This article relates to Shadow of the Wind
There was no special fanfare when Spanish
publisher, Planeta, published Carlos Ruiz Zafón's fifth book
(but his first for adults) The Shadow
of the Wind, in 2002. However, it took off,
spending more than 60 weeks on the bestseller lists in Spain,
and has now been translated into 20
languages. Zafón says that the young adult novel
was 'never my natural genre' (as far as I can see, none of his
earlier works are available in English).
The paradox of The Shadow of the Wind, according to
Ruiz Zafón, is that it could only have been written in Los
Angeles, his home for the past 10 years. He says "I thought it would be a place that would
allow me to keep working," but "it turned out to be a place
that I found quite liberating. A lot of people talk about Los
Angeles as this terrible place and the thing I found is it's a
big nowhere. It's a place that becomes whatever you make of
it. It's filled with interesting people from all over. And you
know, why not?"
Zafón still has a house in
Barcelona. He describes his home town as a place with a
palpable sense of history, saying "the
weight of everything, just seems to get inside you. You just
walk in there and you feel it, it has an entity." He
is working on a new novel but is finding it difficult to work
on while still engaged in such a hectic schedule of
international travel. He says "I need to be away from
the world, I just cannot take the laptop with me and say, 'You
know what, I have two or three days, I'm going to write a
chapter'. That's just not the way I do
it".
This article relates to Shadow of the Wind.
It first ran in the February 2, 2005
issue of BookBrowse Recommends.
The World's Greatest Detective and Her Just Okay Assistant
by Liza Tully
A great detective's young assistant yearns for glory, but first they have learn to get along in this delightful feel good mystery.
Angelica
by Molly Beer
A women-centric view of revolution through the life of Angelica Schuyler Church, Alexander Hamilton's influential sister-in-law.
The Original
by Nell Stevens
In a grand English country house in 1899, an aspiring art forger must unravel whether the man claiming to be her long-lost cousin is an impostor.
The Whyte Python World Tour
by Travis Kennedy
Rikki Thunder, drummer for '80s metal band Whyte Python, is on the verge of fame, love—and a spy mission he didn’t expect.
Fanaticism consists in redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.