"The Shadow of the Wind" by Julián Carax

The novel, set in Barcelona in the period following the Spanish Civil War, concerns a young boy, Daniel Sempere. Just soon after the war, Daniel’s father requires him to the secret Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a huge library of old, forgotten titles lovingly preserved by a select couple of initiates. According to tradition, absolutely everyone initiated to this secret spot is permitted to take a single book from it and have to protect it for life. Daniel selects a book called The Shadow of the Wind by Julián Carax.

That morning he takes the book home and reads it, fully engrossed. Daniel then attempts to look for other books by this unknown author but can uncover none. All he comes across are stories of a strange man—calling himself Laín Coubert, soon after a character in the book who happens to be the Devil—who has been searching for out Carax’s books for decades, acquiring and burning them all.

The novel is actually a story within a story. The boy, Daniel Sempere, in his quest to find out Julian’s other functions, becomes involved in tracing the whole history of Carax. His buddy Fermin Romero de Torres, who was imprisoned and tortured in Montjuic Castle for having been involved in an espionage against the Anarchists in the course of the war—himself being a government intelligence agent—helps Daniel in a quantity of ways, but their probing into the murky past of a quantity of individuals who have been either lengthy dead or extended forgotten unleashes the dark forces of the murderous Inspector Fumero.

Therefore, unravelling a long story that has been buried in the depths of oblivion, Daniel and Fermin come across a really like story, the gorgeous but tragic story of Julian and Penelope, each of whom seem to getting been missing given that 1919—that is, practically thirty years earlier. Julian, who was the son of the hatter Antoni Fortuny and his wife Sophie Carax (but preferred to use his mother’s last name), and Penelope Aldaya, the only daughter of the really wealthy Don Ricardo Aldaya and his stunning, narcissistic American wife, developed an instant enjoy for every other and lived a clandestine relationship only by means of casual furtive glances and faint smiles for around four years, soon after which they decided to elope to Paris, unaware that the shadows of misfortune had been closing in on them ever since they had met. The two lovers are doomed to unknown fates just a week prior to their supposed elopement, which is meticulously planned by Julian’s greatest buddy, Miquel Moliner—also the son of a wealthy father, who had earned a lot during the war, including a negative reputation for promoting ammunition. It is sooner or later revealed that Miquel loved Julian much more than any brother and finally sacrificed his own life for him, possessing already abandoned his desires and his youth for causes of charity and his friend’s properly-getting right after his elopement to Paris — despite the fact that with out Penelope, who in no way turned up for the rendezvous.

Penelope’s memory keeps burning in Julian’s heart, and this sooner or later forces him to return to Barcelona (in the mid 1930s) nevertheless he encounters the harsh truth about Penelope, absolutely nothing more than a memory to these who knew her given that she had by no means been seen or heard of again by any person soon after 1919. Daniel discovers, from the note Nuria Monfort left for him, that Julian and Penelope are truly half-brother and sister her father had an affair with his mother and Julian was the outcome. The worst thing he learns is that following Julian left, Penelope’s parents imprisoned her because they had been ashamed of her committing incest with him and she was pregnant with his child. Penelope gave birth to a son named David Aldaya, who was stillborn. Penelope died in childbirth, due to her parents’ ignoring her cries for assist, and her body was placed in the household crypt along with her child’s. When returning to the Aldaya Mansion, Julian is enraged and embittered by the news of his love’s death along with their child’s. He hates every wasted second of his life without Penelope and hates his books all the much more. He begins to burn all of his novels and calls himself Lain Coubert.

Soon after finishing reading the book, Daniel marries Beatriz “Bea” Aguilar, whom he has loved for a extended time, in 1956. Soon right after, Bea gives birth to a son. Daniel names his son Julian Sempere, in honor of Julian Carax. In 1966, Daniel takes Julian to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, where The Shadow of the Wind is kept.