Getting to know Barcelona

I chose my next book, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón in anticipation of an upcoming trip to Barcelona. Garrett and I tacked a short vacation onto a freelance assignment I had there in early February. So while I was learning about a planned EU-US collaboration on the prevention of Alzheimer's disease, Garrett was exploring this beautiful city. But I had already begun exploring it in this book, which I loved almost as much as I loved Barcelona itself.

The novel revolves around a book called The Shadow of the Wind and its author, the mysterious Julián Carax. It's 1945 and Daniel, age 11, is still mourning the death of his mother from cholera some 7 years earlier. His father, a bookstore owner also in mourning and struggling with how to reach his young son, takes Daniel to The Cemetery of Forgotten Books and tells him to pick out a book. This event presages everything that is to come, both in tone and atmosphere.

"This is a place of mystery, Daniel, a sanctuary. Every book, every volume you see here has a soul. The soul of a person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it...When a library disappears, or a bookshop closes down, when a book is consigned to oblivion, those of us who know this place, its guardians, make sure that it gets here. In this place, books no longer remembered by anyone, books that are lost in time, live forever, waiting for the day when they will reach a new reader's hands. In the shop we buy and sell them, but in truth books have no owner. Every book you see her has been somebody's best friend. Now they have only us, Daniel. Do you think you'll be able to keep such a secret?"

And that wasn't all:

"According to tradition, the first time someone visits this place, he must choose a book, whichever he wants, and adopt it, making sure that it will never disappear, that it will always stay alive. It's a very important promise. For life," explained my father. "Today it's your turn."

So begins Daniel's journey to uncover the story behind Carax's book, The Shadow of the Wind. Zafón's book encompasses many great themes: friendship, love, family, books, life under a fascist government, and especially, Barcelona. As Daniel's friend Fermin says:

"This city is a sorceress, you know, Daniel? It gets under your skin and steals your soul without you knowing it."