Hidden in the heart of the old city of Barcelona is the 'Cemetery of Forgotten Books', a labyrinthine library of obscure and forgotten titles. To this library, a man brings his ten year old son, Daniel, one cold morning in 1945. Daniel is allowed to choose one book and from the dusty shelves pulls The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax. But as Daniel grows up, several people semm inordinately interested in his find. What begins as a case of literacy curiosity turns into a race to find out the truth behind the life and death of Julian Carax and to save those he left behind.

This book is going into the Never judge a book by its cover bookbox.

Pulled out of the bookbox yesterday - the first line about the 'Cemetery of Forgotten Books' that intrigued me and I'm really pleased with my choice!

Finished last night. Overall I really enjoyed it. I did think it did have a bit of a 'false start' with the initial tale of Daniel's obsession with Clara. That storyline seemd to stop rather abruptly and wasn't really resolved. However, that was ok becasue the story really seem to take off after the obsession with Clara stopped. After then I becasue really intrigued with the story - it was pleasantly complicated and very readable. I did feel that Zafon did cheat a little bit by inserting in one or two itacilised passages, which were an easy way to info dump a lot of backstory/info and also included motivations/thoughts that I don't think the 'teller' would have actually have been privy to. But otherwise a good read.

I'm off to the cinema tonight so will take it there to wild release!!

RELEASE NOTES:

On the corner shelf, just to the right of the ticket/sweet counter. On top of all the pamphlets. Left just after the end of the Monday double :-)