Críticas Magazine

Adriana V. Lopez

Attention “The Shadow of the Wind” Fans!
February 29, 2008

After waiting 7 itching years since the publication of La sombra del viento (The Shadow of the Wind) for Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s next novel, you’ll now only have to wait until April 19^th to finally scratch. On Wednesday, Editorial Planeta announced that it plans to release 1 million copies for the initial publication of the untitled novel. An act that continues to only heighten the print run wars in Spain last reported on with Ken Follett’s record breaking 700,000 copies released for Un mundo sin fin(World Without End) in December. Random House Mondadori’s publication of Follett’s book was said to have broken Salamandra’s Harry Potter release. So come April, Planeta and Ruiz Zafón will rule the galaxy for the highest print ever in Spain.

Considered one of the most widely read books by a living Spanish author today, Ruiz Zafón's The Shadow of the Wind took readers to the streets and interiors of a haunted post Civil War Barcelona. A place where Daniel Sempere and his father run a humble bookshop and where a library called Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a huge library of old books are preserved by a select bunch of bibliophiles. Out of all the books in the library that his father allows him to take, leave it to the innocent hands of 11-year-old Daniel to select a cursed book called The Shadow of the Wind by Julián Carax. Obsessed with Carax, Daniel gets entangled into a dark web of intrigue and literary horror with a devilish character named Laín Coubert with which he must bravely extricate himself from with the help of a deliciously noirish cast of characters.

Scheduled to be released right in time for Barcelona’s Diada de Sant Jordi on April 23^rd, a day celebrating love and books, the novel, which little is known about, is said to form part of a trilogy, is based in 1920’s Barcelona and revisits Shadow’s Cemetery of Forgotten Books. Let the countdown until April begin. (Itch).

Posted by Adriana V. Lopez on February 29, 2008 | Comments (1)