I picked up the Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón as soon as I returned from my trip to Barcelona. As I already mentioned in this Instagram post; I really enjoyed recognizing the locations of the book as places I'd visited within that month. This allowed me to become immersed in the narrative in a way I don't think I would've been able to without previous knowledge of the city. Furthermore, the novel is set in the aftermath of the Spanish civil war, so having studied that period of history also gave me a deeper understanding of the impact the war had on the characters.

The Shadow of the Wind follows the story of a young boy named Daniel who as a child finds a rare book by Julián Carax. Daniel falls in love with the story and wants to read Carax's other works, only to find the beginnings of a mystery; someone going by the name of one of the characters from Carax's novel is finding all remaining copies of the books and burning them. Daniel works to uncover the mystery surrounding Julián Carax and finds some of Barcelona's darkest secrets.

Carlos Ruiz Zafón's writing style is beautiful. Slipping into prose-like text at times, the novel was a gripping read that occupied my thoughts even when I set it down.

Just as in Inkheart, the Shadow of the Wind featured a fictitious novel of the same name within the narrative of itself. I always find this concept very interesting so if any of you know other books with this, please let me know in the comments below.

-Laura