Set in post-war Barcelona (WWII and Spanish Civil War), The Shadow of the Wind is a magnificently gothic tale about many things, but at the heart of it is the love of books. Hidden in Barcelona is an old and sacred place called The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, known only to the city’s rare book dealers and a select few people they invite over the years. It’s exactly what it sounds like: a home for books that the world has long forgotten. Each person brought to the library is invited to choose a book from its labyrinthine shelves. That book is then theirs to care for and, thus, no longer forgotten. We follow Daniel, the main character of this tale (and the series), as his father introduces him to the library on his eleventh birthday.

“This is a place of mystery, Daniel, a sanctuary. Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens…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 here has been somebody’s best friend.”

Daniel selects a book, The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax, which drives him to try to track down all the other books written by Carax. It’s an epic tale of books, secrets, murder, and madness and it’s one of the most beautiful stories I’ve ever read. Ruiz Zafón’s love of Barcelona is spelled out in every rich description of the city’s streets, buildings, and people. This is one of those books that envelops you in a thick, velvet blanket of language and feels, effortlessly removing you from real time and real space, where sometimes you can actually hear the rain striking the cobblestone streets.