Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.
Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
Open to a random page
The Shadow of the Wind is a gothic thriller-romance written by Spanish writer Carlos Ruiz Zafon and translated into English by Lucia Graves.
The book opens in the summer of 1945 in Barcelona. Daniel Sempre is taken to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books by his father. It is there that Daniel first finds the book, ‘The Shadow of the Wind’ by Julian Carax. In love with the book, Daniel tries to find out more about the obscure and mysterious author. To his shock, he discovers a man who is out to burn all of Carax’s work. He claims to be a character from the very book, Laín Coubert, the Devil. On his quest to find the truth about Julian Carax, Daniel’s life is altered in ways he couldn’t have imagined possible.
I notice I have been using the word ‘indescribable’ to describe books more often than should be allowed, but let’s allow it this one last time.
I chose this teaser because if there’s anyone who can tell exactly what the book is about, it is the writer himself.
‘Well, this is a story about books.’
‘About books?’
‘About accursed books, about the man who wrote them, about a character who broke out of the pages of a novel so that he could burn it, about a betrayal and a lost friendship. It’s a story of love, of hatred, and of the dreams that live in the shadow of the wind.’
The only thing I think I should say is that I loved how the essence of the story isn’t lost in translation. The magic is still there.
I had this book for a long time, but never got around to reading it. It was a comment by Stephen King that made me want to pick up this book : If you thought the true gothic novel died with the 19th century, this will change your mind. Shadow is the real deal….Be warned, you have to be a romantic at heart to appreciate this stuff, but if you are, this is one gorgeous read.
It took me four days and four hundred and seventy four pages to realize that I might as well be a ‘romantic at heart’, because I think I fell in love with this book.
Tabula Rasa 
Wow – Sounds very interesting! Thanks for stopping by SunnyReads!!
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This is one of my favourite novels ever! Good teaser!
Two teasers from me this week – one from a very short story, and the other from a very long one! And one of them is an Aussie author in honour of Aussie Author month!
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This is still on my TBR pile, Great teaser!
Jules
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Sounds interesting! Great teaser! My teaser is here
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Wonderful teaser! I've read the book and it took me quite a few pages to get into it but after that it was a good read. I might pick it up again one day.
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I absolutely love this book!!! I've read it so many times now! This is a great teaser!! And I agree with you on the translation-bit! The book is magic!! Thanks for hopping by,
Juli @ Universe in Words
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Sounds interesting, must add to my tbr pile
Stop and see mine and my giveaways.
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Sounds like a very interesting book!
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I loved this book it was sooooo good. I really have to take a look at his other work. Great teaser.
Sally.
theelifylop.blogspot.com/2011/04/teaser-tuesday-14.html
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Oh, sounds like something for me. It definitely sounds amazingly good. I think it's going up on my TBR pile!
My TT can be found here!
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That sounds lovely. This one's been on my shelf for a long time and I really can't wait to find time for it! Thanks for sharing.
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Wonderful teaser…I appreciate that you gave a book synopsis as well 🙂
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Thanks!!
@Marg – I loved your teasers!
@Ladybug – I wasn't quite sure at first if I'd like the book, turns out I loved it!!
@Universe in Words – I'm going to end up reading this book many more times too 🙂
@Sally – I think I'm going to start by reading the sequel to this book!
@Pagesofjulia – You should definitely find time for it!!
@Staycey Donaldson – Thanks, I loved the book so much I kind of had to!
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