Carlos Ruiz Zafón - The Labyrinth of the Spirits

As a child, Daniel Sempere discovered a book that would change his life forever. Now a grown man, he is just one step away from solving the mystery of his mother’s death when a new plot is revealed, much deeper and darker than he could ever have imagined. That is when Alicia Gris appears, a soul born from the shadows of war, to lead Daniel to the heart of darkness and reveal the secret history of his family ... at a terrible price.
This is the final chapter in the story that began with The Shadow of the Wind and brings it to a grand finale. It is a tribute to the world of books, the art of storytelling and the magical link between literature and life.

Comment: After years waiting for the price of this book to come down, I've finally gave up and decided to request it at the library. It's a big book and it's part of a series which I have loved reading so I was feeling a little eager to own it but now that the library made it possible for me to borrow it, I don't feel as I've lost something by not owning it. Knowing this world will be a never ending cycle within the books themselves is enjoyment enough.

In this fourth full length book in the amazing Cemetery of Forgotten Books series, the author takes the reader once again into a world of clues and secrets, of characters running from or looking for something. The story goes back to the beginning of how some characters got to be where they are now and the search for the truth about the books by Julian Carax continues while Alicia, a girl Fermín helped when the civil war begun, is now the protagonist of a chase which will not be easy for her nor for those she interacts with or that aren't what they seem. Is there any connection between all the events of the past and the work of Julian Carax and David Martín? How is Daniel and his late mother connected to all this?

I think there are notes in all the books in the series, letting us know how the books can be read in any order, as a door to this labyrinth world the author created. In a way, I must say it is so, there are countless details in all books which one could use to spark an interest or to explain a doubt, but to be fair, thinking about the need to also understand the main plot, this should not be the one people read first. Yes, it does work well on itself, but many of the situations alluded just won't make the best sense if one has not read the other stories before.

There is no doubt whatsoever: Carlos Ruiz Zafón was a mater storyteller and all the things included in the book make sense, explain something somehow, even wen it seems difficult to imagine how, in the middle of so many paths to follow. Of course this is intentional and does enrich the reader's experience, something I loved, but I must confess that while I loved all the books, the impact of the first just has no comparison.

In this one we finally follow the labyrinth path which explains some of little doubts that remained from the other books. The author was, indeed, clever in how everything is linked and put together but I must say some sections took quite a long time to get to the point and not everything, to me, would have been necessary to be so detailed, namely the torture scenes and the situations which happened by stages; some of those just took too many pages. I also think the beginning was a bit confusing and when it finally started to make sense, part of me was already a bit tired.

This aside, there's no doubt on the power of the prose nor in the message the author wanted to convey. Nothing in life is simple and if there was an element I enjoyed was when some things were finally explained and made sense. Some discoveries were amazing and surprising and gave the story an intensity I confess I would not expect, while others weren't as imaginative but not less powerful anyway. 

The characters are another one of the strongest elements in the books and here we see the good and the bad ones have their fate served. Some of the villains were a bit of a caricature, to be honest, and very predictable, while others a bit more understandable. We also meet some characters who have faced terrible things or survived things no one would imagine possible and that affected their judgement and the way they think about how to act next. There's always a certain sense of doubt in everything they decide to do and, in part, that made the story more appealing to read.

I especially liked Alicia, but it took me a while to warm up to her. I understand the idea, but I also think the author gave her a too aloof aura in general... even Daniel here seemed less focused on his beliefs or the attitude he had in the other books... I suppose the tactic was to show how everyone is a set of layers and not one dimensional, but sometimes that made reading about their choices something very frustrating.

I liked this book...it's a pity the author isn't among us anymore to add more layers to his forgotten books cemetery but re-reading will certainly help, one day...

Grade: 7/10

Carlos Ruiz Zafón - The City of Mist

This posthumous collection from Carlos Ruiz Zafón, the New York Times bestselling author of The Shadow of the Wind comprises eleven stories, most never before published in English. The City of Mist is Ruiz Zafón’s tribute to the countless thousands of readers who joined him on the extraordinary journey through the mysterious gothic world of his beloved Cemetery of Forgotten Books quartet.
A boy decides to become a writer when he discovers that his creative gifts capture the attentions of an aloof young beauty who has stolen his heart. A labyrinth-maker flees Constantinople to a plague-ridden Barcelona, with plans for building a library impervious to the destruction of time. A strange gentleman tempts Cervantes to write a book like no other, each page of which could prolong the life of the woman he loves. And a brilliant Catalan architect named Antoni Gaudí reluctantly agrees to cross the ocean to New York, a voyage that will determine the fate of an unfinished masterpiece.
Imaginative and beguiling, these and other stories in The City of Mist bring to life the mesmerising magic of their brilliant creator and invite us to enter the dream along with him.

Comment: This was one of the books I brought from the library the last time I went there. I'm still hoping they will be able to acquire the 4th installment of the wonderful series this author became famous for, but in the meantime, there is this books of short stories, with some of his remaining work which had not been  published before.

This book has a collection of 11 little stories, all set in Barcelona, and all somehow related to the cemetery of forgotten books. Sometimes the connection isn't obvious or that important, but it does feel like a little candy hidden somewhere for the reader to find.

As always, some stories had bigger impact than others, one or two were just two or three pages long, and through all of them we have the familiar author's style, especially when it comes to prose and whimsical little features. I've read some readers comment this is better appreciated if one had read the other books by the author, for this will feel like a treat, even the ones we might not like as much. For a new reader, perhaps the short length might help to give an idea but in my opinion, it's true mr Zafón was a very special writer and perhaps this might not be the best way to truly captivate someone not used to his style.

I'd say what I will remember the most about these 11 short stories is how much sadness all of them convey. The purpose is certainly to give a certain vibe and some stories are quite obvious magical realism, and not as much historical fiction, but in all of them we have the drama of impossible happy ends and the sadness of what could have been. It's also a little bit of a love story with the city of Barcelona, so dear to the author, and always cherished in his work.

Here is a list of the short stories and a small comment on each one of them:

"Blanca and the Departure"

A sad story of a friendship cut when the two friends must separate and which never comes back.

"Nameless" 

A pregnant woman is at the end of her strength, has her baby and her fate is as sad as it can be.

"A Young Lady from Barcelona" 

A man with no prospects finds a way to gain money with the help of his daughter, whose fate is as sad as it could have been avoidable.

"Rose of Fire" 

A man flees to Barcelona in hopes of protecting the city from harm and in the aftermath of a terrible fight, the idea to create the cemetery of forgotten books is born.

"The Prince of Parnassus" 

An imagined but thrilling what if scenario where Miguel de Cervantes found the inspiration and means to write his most known literary work.

"A Christmas Tale" 

A hermit asks his maid to find him a chess adversary once a year. This time, the choice wasn't a clever one...

"Alicia, at Dawn" 

A boy discovers an abandoned bombed building and someone living there. His actions regarding an object inside will have dire consequences.

"Men in Grey" 

A hit man is charged with killing another, older, hit man. However, it's his mentor and the protagonist thinks about the meaning of everything.

"Kiss" 

A man dreams of a kiss while being imprisoned.

"Gaudi in Manhattan"

If Gaudí were to have had an assistant on a journey to New York, this could have been the way it happened and the reason why his further work went the way it did.

"Two-Minute Apocalypse"

What dreams and possibilities can exist in one's mind when the end is near?

All said and done, these stories feel like magic in the author's lyrical prose. I think some might feel they are a little too whimsical but the author is known for his almost Gothic style, which he often included in the books too, even the most contemporary ones. The shorter stories certainly feel more like an episode than a story but our imagination can do the rest. 

Although these aren't all at the same level in terms of appreciation, they are all a little part of the author, whom we know is no longer among us. For fans, this can be seen as his last work, for those who aren't as dedicated to his work, it might be less appealing but no less magical.

Grade: 8/10

Mini - Comments

Two books I've recently read in Portuguese and that I briefly comment on:

Barcelona, 1957. It is Christmas, and Daniel Sempere and his wife Bea have much to celebrate. They have a beautiful new baby son named Julian, and their close friend Fermín Romero de Torres is about to be wed. But their joy is eclipsed when a mysterious stranger visits the Sempere bookshop and threatens to divulge a terrible secret that has been buried for two decades in the city's dark past. His appearance plunges Fermín and Daniel into a dangerous adventure that will take them back to the 1940's and the dark early days of Franco's dictatorship. The terrifying events of that time launch them on a journey fraught with jealousy, suspicion, vengeance, and lies, a search for the truth that will put into peril everything they love and ultimately transform their lives.
Full of intrigue and emotion, The Prisoner of Heaven is a majestic novel in which the threads of The Shadow of the Wind and The Angel's Game converge under the spell of literature and bring us toward the enigma of the mystery hidden at the heart of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a collection of lost treasures known only to its few initiates and the very core of Carlos Ruiz Zafón's enchanting fictional world.

Comment: This is the third installment in the well received Cemetery of Forgotten Books series by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. It is said the books can be read in any order the reader might like because the stories are connected in different manners but to me, I like to read things in some kind of order. 

I was eagerly waiting for this book to be available at the library and I finally found it.

As expected, this was a very beautifully written story, the prose is as evocative and special as seen in the previous books. 

This time we have the plot more centered on Fermín, Daniel's friend and co worker and how his life was before he got to be friends with the Sempere family. The story has many intriguing details but to be honest, I don't think I felt as emotionally captivated with this one as I did with the others before. I liked the tale Fermín shares, I like how he progressed from there until he got to be the man we are familiar with but there are secondary things loosely linked to the Cemetery and to Daniel's personal life - probably to keep up in the next story - that also detracted more impact from the central plot.

Al in all, this was good but not passionate as I hoped for.

Grade: 6/10

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Comment: This is a book only existing in Portuguese, it's a compilation of chronicles written for a

sports' newspaper and where the author points out several aspects pertaining to the period between 2007 and 2010 and always with a very partial opinion/defense of the soccer club he is a fan of.

I think this is only easy to be appreciated by fans of that same club since the author very often criticizes everything else. To be fair, he also criticizes his beloved club when they played poorly. Of course, this needs to be seen through a special eye: the author is known as a humorist, most of his career is on TV and newspapers always with a sarcastic, funny POV.

Personally, I liked reading the texts because they were fun, they were ironic and well written but only people familiar with the subject or interested in it would really appreciate the book.

Grade: 6/10

Marina - Carlos Ruiz Zafón

En la Barcelona de 1980 Óscar Drai sueña despierto, deslumbrado por los palacetes modernistas cercanos al internado en el que estudia. En una de sus escapadas conoce a Marina, una chica audaz que comparte con Óscar la aventura de adentrarse en un enigma doloroso del pasado de la ciudad. Un misterioso personaje de la posguerra se propuso el mayor desafío imaginable, pero su ambición lo arrastró por sendas siniestras cuyas consecuencias debe pagar alguien todavía hoy.

Comment: Just finished, seconds ago, actually, this book.It's amazing, I can't even think of words to describe it. The author always has a certain tone of melancholy in his books, and this one isn't an exception, but the feelings are overwhelming. I feel sad, I feel frustrated because I can't change things; this is a great book.

The plot is in the same lines as the other books I've read by him (Shadow of the Wind and The Angel's Game) but this one is smaller and has a theme..well, it shocks but in the end the reader understands. Painfully, but we do.

I hope this writer will keep writing more books, I have to confess he is the spanish author I prefer these days.