Booklovers’ gothic

• Book: The Shadow of the Wind
• Location: Barcelona
• Author: Carlos Ruiz Zafón (Carlos Ruiz Zafon)

Review Author: Vasha

While reading this book, I kept on laughing. At first, I wondered if that was a misunderstanding; but I eventually decided that the author did indeed intend to be comic. The humor is provided in part by the youthful naivete of the narrator Daniel, and partly by the wonderfully-drawn characters around him. The author manages to keep up lightheartedness even in a setting of gothic drama. The story is not without suspense, however. The book is full of extravagantly doomful depictions of the shadowy streets of Barcelona. The author set himself the task of a delicate balancing act between the darker drama of his story and the comedy; I thought he succeeded well almost the entire time. The only point where things may have slipped out of balance was in the final revelations of the events of the back-story, a real storm of gore and suffering.

This book kept me happily absorbed for several days.

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