Finished Mo 7/15/13
July 2013 selection for The Contemporary Book Club
A complex and compelling tale that manages to cross numerous literary genres (fairy tale, mystery, love story) while retaining the feel of classic gothic fiction. This novel demands much more from the reader than the average novel, but it's really worth the effort.
The main thrust of the plot is relatively simple, yet subplots are intentionally overwhelming because characters life events tend to mirror each other. The novel is structured like an intricate piece of chamber music that invents new themes as slight variations of a single motif, however this literary technique only adds to the hypnotic effect of the novel, and is marvelously effective.
Daniel Sempere is the ten year old son of a widowed antiquarian bookseller who discovers a novel by mysterious author, Julian Carax, and he spends the rest of his life untangling the facts of this elusive writer's legacy. Things get complicated as dozens and dozens of colorful characters are introduced and the novel veers into many different directions simultaneously. Each subplot is worthy of its own novel, and Zafon devops each and every character to the fullest. There really isn't a 'minor character' in the whole book.
Link to Wikipedia-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shadow_of_the_Wind
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