I’m surprised no one has beat me to the punch in adding this marvelous novel to the site, as it has been often raised as a favorite by audience members at our events. I first picked it up, soon after its translation into English in 2004, when I was down with a fever, and my condition certainly met its match in the book’s pages, for I was soon deliriously racing though chapters, hiding from all my responsibilities in Zafón’s congenial cocoon of story. Soon as I’d finished, I eagerly passed my copy around to friends and colleagues, and each returned it (quickly!) with the same demand: “Give me another book like this one—please!” Set in Barcelona in 1945, Zafón’s engrossing tale about a young man’s attempt to unravel the fate of a little-known author, whose books are being bought up or stolen by a mysterious figure, calls to mind the work of Umberto Eco and Gabriel García Márquez. It’s great, suspenseful fun to boot.
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