A fantastic book set in Barcelona, that opens in the summer of 1945 - only six years after the Spanish Civil War ended. The hero is Daniel Sempere, the ten year-old son (when we first meet him) of a bookshop owner. Early in the book, his father brings him to the sort of place bookcrossers would dream about : the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. Its role is to 'save' rare books - those titles in danger of disappearing are brought to the Cemetery by its guardians.

However, all those on their first visit there are allowed to 'adopt' a book - to protect it and ensure it stays alive. Daniel stumbles across and chooses a book called "The Shadow of the Wind" by Julian Caráx - an author and a title unfamiliar to him. It captures his imagination so completely that he is determined to read more of Caráx's book. Unfortunately, not only are his books in short supply, but also Caráx himself proves to be something of a mystery. However, that doesn't put Daniel off....

The second time I've released this book - croc97 wouldn't tell me what happened to the last one.

Released at the bookcrossers' meetup.

Great! I have been wanting to read this one for a while now. Caught at the meetup.

Fantastic book. I found this slightly slow at start, but definitely worth hanging in for - Magical!

RELEASE NOTES:

To be released at the Bookcrossing meetup.

Caught at the meetup

I also took a while to get into this, and seemed to get a bit confused with all the different characters, but people kept encouraging me to keep with it, and I did! Yes, it was well worth it! It just started to make so much sense towards the end, and the tension was terrific!

Released today at Heathrow Airport, after a weekend with my daughter in Richmond.

RELEASE NOTES:

On a seat in the corridor outside Duty free near Gate 2

I flew into Heathrow, back in England after 3 months in Pakistan. Rather sad to be back and tired and grumpy after the long journey, with still a few hours to go. I was intrigued to see a book sitting alone on a seat, and delighted to discover it was part of this bookcrossing thing. Thank you. It really cheered me up and brightened a tedious journey.
The book is here with me in Liverpool. I'm about to go to bed and begin reading it.

This is the second time I've "found" this book. The first was nine years ago, I went into a library to look for a new author and decided to select the last book in the fiction section which was The Shadow of the Wind. I didn't have a chance to open it and returned it unread. A few months back, I found this book again sitting alone on a bench, and now I've read it I find it odd that the main character selected it like I did the first time, only he chose it from a cemetery of forgotten books. A good read, although at times I disliked where I thought the plot was going. I also read it in the Lake District, in front of a log fire with a waterfall thundering in the background. A good book for such a place.

Took me a few months to read it because it has such dark passages ~ however, certainly memorable!