THE SHADOW OF THE WIND.

Carlos Ruiz Zafón

• Carlos Ruíz Zafón was born in Barcelona in 1964. He lived in Los Angeles (United States) from 1994 until 2006, working as a screenplay writer, where he began to develop his novel writing career. He returned to Barcelona in 2006, where he currently resides today.

• His first novel, El príncipe de la niebla (The Prince of Mist, 1993), earned the Edebé literary prize for young adult fiction. He is also the author of three more young adult novels, El palacio de la medianoche (1994), Las luces de septiembre (1995) and Marina (20222).

• In 2001 he published the novel La sombra del viento (The Shadow of the Wind), his first "adult" novel, which has sold millions of copies worldide.

Summary• Daniel was ten when he was taken into a cemetery

and told he was allowed to save one soul. His father owned a bookstore packed full of contemporary titles of his 1940's Barcelona, but Daniel's father's real love was the appropriately named "Cemetery of Forgotten Books," Daniel is told to take one book, read it, and protect its story for the rest of his life.

• And Daniel so loves the novel he selects, The Shadow of the Wind by one Julian Carax, that he sets out to find the rest of Carax’s work.

• To his shock, he discovers that someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book this author has written. In fact, he may have the last one in existence.

• Before Daniel knows it his seemingly innocent quest has opened a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets, an epic story of murder, magic, madness and doomed love. And before long he realizes that if he doesn’t find out the truth about Julian Carax, he and those closest to him will suffer horribly.

Place and time

• The story is set in a cold and lonely Barcelona of 1945. The author describes perfectly the streets, neighborhoods and places in which the story takes place. There is a part of the story in which is set on the beach of Barcelona, near the harbor. It also appears the Avenida del Tibidabo and Montjuïc. And finally appears Paris, although it is not one of the most important places.

Characters• Daniel Sempere: Main character of the story. He is a quiet guy,

pleasant and polite. His mother died when he was young and his father had to bring him up.

• Julian Carax: He is the author of The Shadow of the Wind. He was born in Barcelona but latermoved to Paris, where he worked as a pianist. His real love was Penelope Aldaya, but it was an impossible love.

• Tomas Aguilar: He was the best friend of Daniel until he met Fermin. It is a reserved guy, the people feared for his appearance as a thug, serious and threatening.

• Fermin Romero de Torres: A beggar who helps Daniel. He is a thin man, very nice, friendly, fun and enjoyable. He falls in love Bernarda.

• Bernarda: She is the servant of Barceló and Clara. She's very sweet.

• Gustavo Barceló: A famous bookseller in Barcelona. When he meet Daniel, he wants to buy the book The Shadow of the Wind, but fails.

• Clara: The Barceló’s niece. She is blind. It's a young girl about twenty years. It was Daniel's platonic love for a few years.

• Adrian Neri: He is Clara’s piano’s teacher. He is an unfriendly man. He doesn’t get on well with Daniel.

• Javier Fumero: A famous inspector, but he is a very bad man. He killed Clara’s father. He is unpleasant and loves making people suffer. He wants to kill Fermin. When he was a child he was a friend of Carax.

• Nuria Monfort: She is the daughter of Isaac and the wife of Miquel Moliner. She was in love with Julian, although he never loved her.

• Isaac: It is the doorman of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. It's a very sad man, quite and bad mood.

• Lain Coubert: He is a character of the novel The Shadow of the Wind that represents the devil and Daniel discovers that someone in real life call himself like that. It is a mysterious man with a disfigured face, because of a fire. That's why he doesn’t have eyelids and lips.

• Penelope Aldaya: She is Jorge Aldaya’s sister. She was the real love of Julian Carax.

• Sophie Carax: She is Julian’s mother.• Ricardo Aldaya: Jorge and Penelope’s father. He is very

rich and thinks he is the best.• Jorge Aldaya: Son of Richard and a close friend of Julian Carax.• Beatriz Aguilar: At first she didn’t get on well with Daniel but

later they fell in love.

Spanish group.

• Celia Cárceles• Lucía Martín• Sara Domene• Enca Rodríguez• María Maestra• María Hernández• Cinthia Parra• Ángela Jofré