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Review: Carlos Ruiz Zafón - The Shadow of the Wind (La sombra del viento) (2001)
This book was alright. It was a little too cheesy and fairy tale-like for me to fully enjoy. I think I would have enjoyed this book more if I was younger, but I couldn't really take it seriously. It did have some interesting plots and themes as a mystery/adventure, but the way it was written was too perfect and too morally black and white for me to enjoy.
Spoilers.
Story
There were two timelines in this story, one in the present and one in the past. The present involved our main character Daniel Sempere trying to understand the mystery behind a book and its missing author, Julian Carax. In doing so, he dug up the past, while also finding his own life mirroring that of Julian's.
In the past, Julian was the illegitimate son of a rich man, Aldaya, though unbeknownst to him. Julian fell in love with the sister of a classmate, who were both children of Aldaya. Julian and Penelope, his beloved, were caught together. Julian ran away while Penelope was held captive and grounded. It was revealed that she was pregnant and she later had Julian's child, though they both died in childbirth.
In the present, Daniel and his friend Fermin went around town finding out about Julian, why he was missing, and why his books were missing. Eventually, he was given story of the past by Nuria Monfort, who was related to the story. The local evil inspector Fumero was also connected to Julian and their cohort, and was trying to track down Julian to confront him.
There was a romantic subplot in which Daniel fell in love with friend's sister Bea, much like Julian did. She also fell pregnant, and ran away.
In the end, Daniel, Bea, Julian, and Fumero converged in a gunfight, though none of them died. It was revealed that Julian had escaped with his life and was likely living in Paris.
My problem with this book came at the beginning, where people were described to be very charming, rather than it being shown to us. For example, Fermin was described as being very smart and very friendly, but a lot of his dialogue at the beginning just made him out to be a pervert. The entire introduction of the Cemetary of Forgotten Books was extremely fantastical and unbelievable to me, which was what led me to believe that this book would have been for a younger audience, if not for the sex scenes and incest themes.
Another problem I had with this book was that people are inherently good or evil. Despite Fermin being a total pervert, he was a good guy because the story said that he was. Fumero was an evil person, evil from youth all the way until adulthood and beyond. The ending of this book was especially eye-rolly to me. It was a big happy ending, everybody got married and had kids, Julian Carax's books were printed and were humongous hits, despite us never really having read the book and knowing that it was good. Yeah, Fumero didn't die which was maybe the one non-fantastical thing that happened.
I understand why some may have enjoyed the story, as it is a decent mystery with moving parts and some parallel themes. However, it was nothing more to me.
Writing & Translation
The English version that I read was translated by Lucia Graves. I think the writing enhanced the cheesy feeling I got from the story. It used a lot of cliches to paint Barcelona to look and feel magical, but too magical to the point that it didn't feel realistic. The way the book read also felt a little too direct, in the sense that I would have expected this from a book for young adults rather than for adults.
I also felt that the investigative parts of the story weren't very realistic. Many of the interviews between Daniel and his interviewees were incredibly question and answer, with little interaction. They were more like NPCs who gave all of the information that Daniel needed to know. The only time there was a roadblock was when Daniel interviewed Nuria and realized she was hiding some things. As well, characters would explain things in deep detail as if they were there, when in fact, it was not true. Penelope and Julian's entire romance couldn't have been known in that much detail by anyone other than those two, not by Jacinta or Miquel. They would have known what had happened, but the way Julian and Penelope being found out was revealed...it could only have been through word-of-mouth.
So the writing did affect my enjoyment of this book.
Characters
Daniel Sempere
Our main character. Unfortunately he did not have a strong personality other than "wanting to find out the truth." While he did inadvertently inspire Julian not to destroy his books, I think what Julian saw in Daniel was more just a younger version of himself, as opposed to something about his character.
Otherwise, Daniel was just kind of a regular young man. He fell in love, he wanted to save the day, etc. I wasn't interested in him.
Senor Sempere
Sempere was Daniel's father. He was the one who had introduced Daniel to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. He himself was a bookstore owner. However, Sempere was not a big character in this story. He did not assist Daniel much in investigating the mystery behind Julian Carax. However, Sempere did cover for Daniel whenever Fumero came knocking. But it's a little curious that Sempere never got caught up in the trouble, which is another way this book felt unrealistic to me.
Gustavo Barcelo
Gustavo was a friend of Sempere's, who dealt in books. The first time he saw Daniel with the Shadow of the Wind, he wanted to buy it, but Daniel would not budge, and that earned Gustavo's friendship and respect. Gustavo did help him occasionally in his mystery.
In the end, Gustavo had sold the shares of his business to Sempere and Daniel, and opened a publishing company to print more of Julian's books, which sold very well.
Clara Barcelo
Clara was Gustavo's niece, Daniel's first love. She was quite a bit older than Daniel so from my perspective it was never really going to work. She was an angel, white hair and white clothes. She was also blind, so Daniel would read to her.
She first met Daniel because Gustavo had introduced her to him. Clara was an expert on Julian Carax so she was able to tell him more about his book.
She sort of broke Daniel's heart when he stumbled upon Clara having sex with her piano teacher (which she did not know about, because she was blind and didn't see Daniel). From then on, he stayed away.
Clara didn't come up a lot, though intermittently through the book, it would be mentioned that she would ask about Daniel and invite him over.
In the end, it was revealed that Clara had married a banker but divorced him in a year, and instead grew old and bitter alone. Last time that Daniel saw her, she was feeling her face for wrinkles. And the piano teacher that she had slept with was now a gigolo. I hated this ending for her, because it implied that because Clara broke Daniel's heart, she was a bitch anyway and she deserved the ugly oldness that came to her. Clara never did anything to wrong Daniel. It wasn't a crime for her to be in love with someone else, especially when Daniel was so much younger than her. What the heck.
Tomas Aguilar
Tomas was Daniel's best friend, though it was hardly shown in the book. It was mentioned in the beginning once that they were best friends, because Sempere had warned Daniel against telling his friend about the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. But we didn't hear much about Tomas. Daniel did express guilt at not having spoken to Tomas much after he started investigating Julian Carax. But I didn't really sense much friendship.
The next time Tomas came into the story was when the Aguilar family was trying to deduce who Bea was spending time with. And when Tomas found out it was Daniel, he was not happy. He did eventually punch Daniel really hard, after Daniel found out that Bea became pregnant and had gone missing.
Ever the merciful protagonist, Daniel forgave Tomas and hugged him after he awoke in the hospital, which moved Tomas so much that he went outside to cry. However, he later moved to Germany and only ever wrote Bea. Daniel knew that the friendship wasn't really there anymore.
Beatriz Aguilar
Bea was Tomas' sister. She was engaged to a soldier and would marry him after he came back from war. Daniel said that he used to be a bit scared of her, though we didn't really know why. Maybe it was simply because she was confident.
Bea and Daniel's courtship was kind of odd. I don't really understand how they fell in love. Daniel blurted out that he could show Bea another side of Barcelona and she accepted. I guess it was just a bit of tension but it wasn't convincing to me. Maybe because I was a hater.
Bea agreed to Daniel's deal and he showed her the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, which I thought was so dumb. Sempere told Daniel he was never to tell anyone, not even Tomas, and so Daniel decided to show Bea, a girl he barely knew. So Daniel did it to impress a girl. Not really noble. And he didn't even suffer any consequences. Maybe it was a dumb rule, but it was emphasized so seeing some side effects would have been interesting.
Knowing that Daniel was interested in Julian Carax, Bea found the Aldaya house and showed it to Daniel. It became their shared space. They had sex there.
Sometimes, it felt like Bea's only role was to be a second Penelope, seeing as how Julian Carax said that Bea saved both Julian and Daniel. In the footsteps of Penelope, Bea fell pregnant and angered her family. Senor Aguilar threatened Daniel outright, as did Tomas. Bea eventually ran away, hiding at the abandoned Aldaya house.
Bea was found by Daniel and thankfully they both made it out alive. In the end, she and Daniel married and she gave birth to Julian. Bea also helped run the bookstore.
Bea was kind of a placeholder, but I did find her a little more interesting than Daniel, if only because Daniel had some conflicts with her at the beginning, with her thinking her life would be better when she moved away with her fiance the soldier.
Fermin Romero de Torres
Fermin was a homeless man that Daniel had befriended. Sempere was looking for someone to help out at the store. Daniel knew Fermin to be surprisingly intelligent and suggested him.
Thus ensued a scene where Daniel and Sempere invited Fermin into their home, bathed and fed him, and Fermin pledged his eternal allegiance. I could not take this seriously, because this kind of saviour story line was the kind of story I dreamed of when I was literally 11 years old. It was just too fantastical for me to take seriously.
As I mentioned, Fermin just came off as a sleazy dude. Rather than intelligent, he was maybe more resourceful. But the dude was kind of a rat. He was always saying sleazy things about women.
Fermin was Daniel's main help in investigating Julian Carax and he did help a lot.
Fermin had some run-ins with the law. He'd changed his name many times, and had run into Fumero many times. He was framed by Fumero for murdering Nuria Monfort, but he somehow escaped and came to help Daniel.
In the end, he married Bernarda, and four kids with her.
Fermin was the biggest example to me of a character who was good simply because we were told he had a heart of gold, because he was loyal to Daniel and Sempere. However, his behaviour was slimy and uncomfortable and I didn't like him as much as the author had hoped I would.
Francisco Javier Fumero
The main antagonist in both past and present story lines.
In the past, he was a classmate of Julian, Miquel, Jorge, and Fernando. However, he was looked down upon. I believe his father might have been a janitor, though I can't remember correctly. His mother was laughed at for being kind of tacky. In addition, he was said to have killed small animals. While killing animals was a big red flag, the fact that his parents were tacky was not a good enough reason for him to have been considered a character worth laughing at. Even in his adulthood, people laughed at him for things that happened to him as a child (wearing the sailor suit to the party).
Fumero was also in love with Penelope, and that was why he wanted to hunt down Julian. He had somehow found out that Penelope and Julian were half-siblings (how?) and he wanted to tell Julian to torture him. So Fumero's deal was really more that he wanted to torture Julian than it was about him loving Penelope.
In the present, Fumero was a corrupt and violent cop. He bullied Fermin a lot. He was also onto Daniel because he'd found out that Daniel was investigating Julian Carax. Fumero had Daniel followed and also attacked to get him to stop poking his nose where he didn't want it.
Fumero followed Daniel to the abandoned Aldaya house where he found Julian. I don't think he ever managed to tell Julian the truth. A police detective who sympathized with Daniel was kind of trying to stop Fumero from hurting anyone. Guns were fired, but no one died. The confrontation was covered up and said to have been Fumero taking down a gang, and preparations were in order for a street to be named after Fumero.
Fumero was kind of comically evil and that made it difficult for me to take him seriously. And like I said, a lot of the way people treated him when he was a kid was just people being mean to him for no reason and that didn't really endear the supposed good guys to me.
Nuria Monfort
Nuria was Isaac's daughter, who happened to be deeply connected to the Julian Carax case.
Nuria worked for a publishing house in France where she met and fell in love with Julian Carax. However, he was still in love with Penelope and never loved Nuria back despite them occasionally having sex.
Nuria was also kind of the middle person between Julian and Miquel, and through those correspondences, Miquel fell in love with Nuria, though both knew that Nuria was in love with Julian and would never stop. Nuria eventually married Miquel.
When Miquel died, he was misidentified as Julian, and so when Julian was found, Nuria presented him as her husband Miquel. Nuria took care of Julian, and struggled with bad employers to put food on the table for both of them. Eventually, Julian left Nuria, who continued her work as a translator.
Daniel's investigation led him to Nuria, who told some truths and some lies. She purposefully did so because she did not want Julian to find out that Penelope was his half-sister.
Nuria was killed by Fumero. Before she died, she entrusted a letter to her father that would be passed on to Daniel in event of her death. The letter outlined everything that Nuria knew, in hopes that Daniel would drop the topic and protect Julian. The whole letter felt kind of like a copout because Nuria was just giving it to Daniel. It would have been more interesting to catch Nuria doing more shady things and to have them revealed one by one to us.
Isaac Monfort
Isaac managed the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, where Daniel first met him. It was Isaac who referred Daniel to his estranged daughter who knew some things about Julian Carax. However, Isaac remained distant with his daughter their whole lives. They both knew that Nuria had secrets that she wouldn't tell her father. Nonetheless, there was love between them.
Honestly, Isaac and Nuria was a pretty interesting family relationship because Nuria kept her father at a distance despite loving him, and Isaac was not brave enough to bridge the gap and be a person her daughter could confide in. It was one of the more complex relationships in this book.
Julian Carax
Julian was Daniel in another life. Honestly. The point was that Julian saw himself in Daniel, but considering Daniel was kind of a nothingburger, so was Julian.
Julian was the bastard child of Sophie and Don Ricardo Aldaya, though Julian did not know that. The only father he knew was Antoni Fortuny. Fortuny was not a loving father, and was abusive to his wife and child (whom he knew was not his).
Julian charmed Don Ricardo Aldaya (who knew that he was his son), and through Aldaya, Julian got a spot in the prestigious private school. His best friend at the school was Miquel Moliner. However, for the purpose of becoming close with Penelope, Julian befriended Jorge, sucked up to the Aldayas, etc.
Julian had planned to run away to Paris with Penelope with the help of Miquel. Soon after he revealed the plan to Penelope, they were found out by Penelope's mother who of course told her father. Penelope was locked in a cell. Miquel knew this, but he did not tell Julian, continuing to help him run away, because he knew that Julian would never leave if he knew and that would be certain death for him.
In Paris, Julian wrote his books and that was how Nuria met him. However, when she met him in person, she saw that he was kind of a ghost, that his heart was still with Penelope. Miquel supported Julian's writing career to the point of becoming poor.
Julian returned to Barcelona to find Penelope and their son David dead. He hated that he had spent all that time away from Penelope writing books when he did not know that all of this had happened. And that started Julian's path of hatred. He wanted to destroy all of the books he'd written. He was the Lain Coubert of his stories that had bought up all of his books and burned his warehouses. He'd become very disfigured in a fire and that was how he had come to be in the care of Nuria.
Julian eventually became a murderer, killing those who were bad or immoral, such as Nuria's boss.
Julian had approached Daniel for his book, but Daniel had refused. Julian continued to follow Daniel, only to find himself inspired by Daniel, seeing that there was good in his books if they fell in the hands of someone like Daniel.
Julian lay low at the abandoned Aldaya house. He'd dug up the bodies of Penelope and David. When Bea fled there, he helped her too, seeing a bit of Penelope in her. Julian and Fumero had a confrontation in the end, but Julian got away.
When Daniel was in the hospital, he found that his pen had been taken though nobody saw anyone come into his room. He knew it was Julian Carax, who had taken it and started to write books again, one of which he dedicated to Daniel.
Like I said, Julian was just another version of Daniel. At one point I'd wondered if Julian was actually Daniel's real father but that did not turn out true. Julian finding inspiration in Daniel was a bit whatever, particularly because I didn't care for Daniel.
Penelope Aldaya
Penelope was Julian's lover. In the words of Nuria, she was perpetually 17 years old, so it was kind of annoying to her that she was constantly losing to a 17 year old.
When her parents found out about her relationship, Penelope was locked up, and of course she ended up pregnant (for maximum drama). She was not allowed to go anywhere, and her governess Jacinta was dismissed for abetting her trysts.
Penelope had been forced to write a letter to Julian (when he was in Paris), telling him that she was going to get married and that she could never love him. We are to believe that she was forced to write the letter under duress. Penelope gave birth to a stilborn son and died.
Jacinta Coronado
Jacinta was Penelope's governess who loved her as a mother did. Jacinta was another example of a person who was good because the story said so. She allowed for Penelope and Julian to see each other, because she felt that he was good for her. That may be true, but it was a bit of a juvenile reason in my opinion.
When Penelope's parents found out about Penelope's relationship, Jacinta was dismissed and not allowed to see Penelope or anyone at the Aldaya house. Don Aldaya also had her committed to a mental hospital. It was there that Daniel and Fermin found her and interviewed her.
In the end, it seems Julian had visited her and she promptly passed.
Jorge Aldaya
Jorge was Julian's classmate and Penelope's brother. At first, we were led to believe that Julian and Jorge were best friends. However, Fernando revealed that Julian was actually best friends with Miquel, and then we found out that Julian likely only became close to Jorge because he liked Penelope.
After Jorge found out about Julian and Penelope's relationship, he became very angry. I think he probably intercepted all of Julian's letters to Penelope. Jorge knew that Miquel was helping Julian and it was him who gave Miquel the letter from Penelope to Daniel.
Jorge had left with his parents to the Americas. When he returned to Barcelona, he was still full of hate. Fermin used his hatred to find Julian. I believe Jorge confronted Julian in a duel on Julian's wedding day and told him the truth about Penelope (and possibly about them being half-siblings?). However, Julian killed Jorge in the duel, when previously it was believed that Julian had died in the duel.
Miquel Moliner
Miquel was Julian's best friend. He helped Julian escape, and hid the fact of Penelope's captivity from Julian to keep him safe. When Julian became a writer, Miquel bought his books, to the point of going broke. His brothers were working together to kick him out of a family home.
Miquel was in love with Nuria. Despite knowing that she was in love with Julian, they got married. Miquel began to fall ill and Nuria continued to take care of him. Miquel eventually gave his life to protect Julian.
Fernando Ramos
Fernando was another classmate who'd become a priest and teacher at the school that Julian, Miquel, Jorge, Fernand, and Fumero had attended.
Daniel and Fermin had interviewed Father Ramos who had directed them to Jacinta. In the end, Father Ramos had officiated Daniel and Bea's wedding, despite being more comfortable with teaching than officiating weddings.
Antoni Fortuny
Antoni Fortuny was Julian's adoptive father, and the person he knew to be his father growing up. He was the owner of a hat store. He was abusive to Sophie and Julian.
Antoni's luck had changed when Don Aldaya came around to buy a hat, though we later found out that he had done so purposely to take a look at his son. When Fortuny found Julian to be a bit too chummy with Aldaya, Fortuny approached Aldaya and told him that his son was actually not a good person in hopes of getting Aldaya away from his son. However, Aldaya came away from that having a more negative perception of Fortuny.
After Aldaya found out about Penelope and Julian's relationship, Aldaya approached Fortuny to arrange for Julian to go to the army. But Julian ran away before that.
Eventually, Fortuny and Sophie's relationship fell apart. Sophie finally left her abusive husband, and last we heard, she'd married a rich man and moved to Argentina. On the other hand, Fortuny fell on desolate times after he fell out of favour with Aldaya.
When Julian returned to Barcelona, Fortuny seemed to have become a very different man, very much willing to help Julian. He hid Julian from the cops. In his old age, Nuria was the one who took care of him. Apparently Fortuny also wrote to Sophie in Argentina, their son being the one thing they had in common.
I don't know how I feel about Fortuny. He was an abusive piece of shit, and then suddenly he turned into a different person. I wasn't even mad that he didn't get a redemption arc, he just felt like a completely different character that I didn't connect the new Fortuny with the old Fortuny. Did Fortuny feel bad about abusing his wife and kids? Not that I think Julian would have kicked him to the curb because the hate was always one-sided from Fortuny to Julian, but it was just kind of surprising.
Sophie Carax
Sophie was Julian's mother. She had had an affair with Aldaya and became pregnant. She married Fortuny, who had been pursuing her. Apparently he touched her once and was disgusted and never touched her again, so he knew that the baby wasn't his. Fortuny was abusive towards Sophie constantly. But Sophie didn't really have other options because of Julian.
It was Sophie who revealed to Nuria that Penelope and Julian were siblings. Sophie did eventually leave Fortuny and married a rich husband with whom she moved to Argentina.
After Fortuny died, Nuria wrote Sophie posing as a lawyer to ask for money to keep the apartment. That money was also partially used to support Nuria and Julian. Sophie did not question it, showing she still cared for Fortuny and Julian.
I feel like maybe Sophie should have had a bigger role. She was surprisingly absent in this story for someone who was a connecting piece between Penelope and Julian.
Don Ricardo Aldaya
Don Ricardo was the biological father of Jorge, Penelope, and Julian. He'd had an affair with Sophie but was kind of a douche so of course he wasn't going to leave his wife for Sophie.
Later in life, Aldaya found that he didn't like his son Jorge very much, so he turned to Julian. That was why he visited Fortuny's hat shop, why he had Julian enrolled in the private school. As mentioned, he liked Julian more than his adoptive father.
Aldaya was irate when he found out Penelope and Julian were in a relationship. At the time, Jorge realized that the anger was a bit overblown and it clued him into the fact that there was something else going on (Penelope and Julian being siblings). After Aldaya found this out, he had Julian expelled and arranged for him to go to the army. As well, he had Penelope locked up and she died in childbirth along with the baby because she wasn't given adequate care.
At that time, the Aldaya business was starting to not do so well, they were deep in debt. And that was why they left and went to South America. And that was why the Aldaya house was abandoned.
Themes
I think the strongest theme here was the parallels between Julian and Daniel. The first time this story was told, the protagonists met disastrous endings, Penelope and David died, and Julian was left to a life of hatred and vengeance.
When Julian saw himself in Daniel, he realized that there was a chance for things to go right. That was why he was intent on helping Daniel and Bea.
Overall
Maybe this book was overhyped for me, but I couldn't help but roll my eyes at parts of it because it was so morally black and white. The story was too fantastical and fairy tale-like.
The writing also stuck out to me because I didn't like it. It was too direct and cliched. The author did a lot of telling and not showing.
I might have enjoyed this book if I was ten years younger, but alas, I am not.
Spoilers.
Story
There were two timelines in this story, one in the present and one in the past. The present involved our main character Daniel Sempere trying to understand the mystery behind a book and its missing author, Julian Carax. In doing so, he dug up the past, while also finding his own life mirroring that of Julian's.
In the past, Julian was the illegitimate son of a rich man, Aldaya, though unbeknownst to him. Julian fell in love with the sister of a classmate, who were both children of Aldaya. Julian and Penelope, his beloved, were caught together. Julian ran away while Penelope was held captive and grounded. It was revealed that she was pregnant and she later had Julian's child, though they both died in childbirth.
In the present, Daniel and his friend Fermin went around town finding out about Julian, why he was missing, and why his books were missing. Eventually, he was given story of the past by Nuria Monfort, who was related to the story. The local evil inspector Fumero was also connected to Julian and their cohort, and was trying to track down Julian to confront him.
There was a romantic subplot in which Daniel fell in love with friend's sister Bea, much like Julian did. She also fell pregnant, and ran away.
In the end, Daniel, Bea, Julian, and Fumero converged in a gunfight, though none of them died. It was revealed that Julian had escaped with his life and was likely living in Paris.
My problem with this book came at the beginning, where people were described to be very charming, rather than it being shown to us. For example, Fermin was described as being very smart and very friendly, but a lot of his dialogue at the beginning just made him out to be a pervert. The entire introduction of the Cemetary of Forgotten Books was extremely fantastical and unbelievable to me, which was what led me to believe that this book would have been for a younger audience, if not for the sex scenes and incest themes.
Another problem I had with this book was that people are inherently good or evil. Despite Fermin being a total pervert, he was a good guy because the story said that he was. Fumero was an evil person, evil from youth all the way until adulthood and beyond. The ending of this book was especially eye-rolly to me. It was a big happy ending, everybody got married and had kids, Julian Carax's books were printed and were humongous hits, despite us never really having read the book and knowing that it was good. Yeah, Fumero didn't die which was maybe the one non-fantastical thing that happened.
I understand why some may have enjoyed the story, as it is a decent mystery with moving parts and some parallel themes. However, it was nothing more to me.
Writing & Translation
The English version that I read was translated by Lucia Graves. I think the writing enhanced the cheesy feeling I got from the story. It used a lot of cliches to paint Barcelona to look and feel magical, but too magical to the point that it didn't feel realistic. The way the book read also felt a little too direct, in the sense that I would have expected this from a book for young adults rather than for adults.
I also felt that the investigative parts of the story weren't very realistic. Many of the interviews between Daniel and his interviewees were incredibly question and answer, with little interaction. They were more like NPCs who gave all of the information that Daniel needed to know. The only time there was a roadblock was when Daniel interviewed Nuria and realized she was hiding some things. As well, characters would explain things in deep detail as if they were there, when in fact, it was not true. Penelope and Julian's entire romance couldn't have been known in that much detail by anyone other than those two, not by Jacinta or Miquel. They would have known what had happened, but the way Julian and Penelope being found out was revealed...it could only have been through word-of-mouth.
So the writing did affect my enjoyment of this book.
Characters
Daniel Sempere
Our main character. Unfortunately he did not have a strong personality other than "wanting to find out the truth." While he did inadvertently inspire Julian not to destroy his books, I think what Julian saw in Daniel was more just a younger version of himself, as opposed to something about his character.
Otherwise, Daniel was just kind of a regular young man. He fell in love, he wanted to save the day, etc. I wasn't interested in him.
Senor Sempere
Sempere was Daniel's father. He was the one who had introduced Daniel to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. He himself was a bookstore owner. However, Sempere was not a big character in this story. He did not assist Daniel much in investigating the mystery behind Julian Carax. However, Sempere did cover for Daniel whenever Fumero came knocking. But it's a little curious that Sempere never got caught up in the trouble, which is another way this book felt unrealistic to me.
Gustavo Barcelo
Gustavo was a friend of Sempere's, who dealt in books. The first time he saw Daniel with the Shadow of the Wind, he wanted to buy it, but Daniel would not budge, and that earned Gustavo's friendship and respect. Gustavo did help him occasionally in his mystery.
In the end, Gustavo had sold the shares of his business to Sempere and Daniel, and opened a publishing company to print more of Julian's books, which sold very well.
Clara Barcelo
Clara was Gustavo's niece, Daniel's first love. She was quite a bit older than Daniel so from my perspective it was never really going to work. She was an angel, white hair and white clothes. She was also blind, so Daniel would read to her.
She first met Daniel because Gustavo had introduced her to him. Clara was an expert on Julian Carax so she was able to tell him more about his book.
She sort of broke Daniel's heart when he stumbled upon Clara having sex with her piano teacher (which she did not know about, because she was blind and didn't see Daniel). From then on, he stayed away.
Clara didn't come up a lot, though intermittently through the book, it would be mentioned that she would ask about Daniel and invite him over.
In the end, it was revealed that Clara had married a banker but divorced him in a year, and instead grew old and bitter alone. Last time that Daniel saw her, she was feeling her face for wrinkles. And the piano teacher that she had slept with was now a gigolo. I hated this ending for her, because it implied that because Clara broke Daniel's heart, she was a bitch anyway and she deserved the ugly oldness that came to her. Clara never did anything to wrong Daniel. It wasn't a crime for her to be in love with someone else, especially when Daniel was so much younger than her. What the heck.
Tomas Aguilar
Tomas was Daniel's best friend, though it was hardly shown in the book. It was mentioned in the beginning once that they were best friends, because Sempere had warned Daniel against telling his friend about the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. But we didn't hear much about Tomas. Daniel did express guilt at not having spoken to Tomas much after he started investigating Julian Carax. But I didn't really sense much friendship.
The next time Tomas came into the story was when the Aguilar family was trying to deduce who Bea was spending time with. And when Tomas found out it was Daniel, he was not happy. He did eventually punch Daniel really hard, after Daniel found out that Bea became pregnant and had gone missing.
Ever the merciful protagonist, Daniel forgave Tomas and hugged him after he awoke in the hospital, which moved Tomas so much that he went outside to cry. However, he later moved to Germany and only ever wrote Bea. Daniel knew that the friendship wasn't really there anymore.
Beatriz Aguilar
Bea was Tomas' sister. She was engaged to a soldier and would marry him after he came back from war. Daniel said that he used to be a bit scared of her, though we didn't really know why. Maybe it was simply because she was confident.
Bea and Daniel's courtship was kind of odd. I don't really understand how they fell in love. Daniel blurted out that he could show Bea another side of Barcelona and she accepted. I guess it was just a bit of tension but it wasn't convincing to me. Maybe because I was a hater.
Bea agreed to Daniel's deal and he showed her the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, which I thought was so dumb. Sempere told Daniel he was never to tell anyone, not even Tomas, and so Daniel decided to show Bea, a girl he barely knew. So Daniel did it to impress a girl. Not really noble. And he didn't even suffer any consequences. Maybe it was a dumb rule, but it was emphasized so seeing some side effects would have been interesting.
Knowing that Daniel was interested in Julian Carax, Bea found the Aldaya house and showed it to Daniel. It became their shared space. They had sex there.
Sometimes, it felt like Bea's only role was to be a second Penelope, seeing as how Julian Carax said that Bea saved both Julian and Daniel. In the footsteps of Penelope, Bea fell pregnant and angered her family. Senor Aguilar threatened Daniel outright, as did Tomas. Bea eventually ran away, hiding at the abandoned Aldaya house.
Bea was found by Daniel and thankfully they both made it out alive. In the end, she and Daniel married and she gave birth to Julian. Bea also helped run the bookstore.
Bea was kind of a placeholder, but I did find her a little more interesting than Daniel, if only because Daniel had some conflicts with her at the beginning, with her thinking her life would be better when she moved away with her fiance the soldier.
Fermin Romero de Torres
Fermin was a homeless man that Daniel had befriended. Sempere was looking for someone to help out at the store. Daniel knew Fermin to be surprisingly intelligent and suggested him.
Thus ensued a scene where Daniel and Sempere invited Fermin into their home, bathed and fed him, and Fermin pledged his eternal allegiance. I could not take this seriously, because this kind of saviour story line was the kind of story I dreamed of when I was literally 11 years old. It was just too fantastical for me to take seriously.
As I mentioned, Fermin just came off as a sleazy dude. Rather than intelligent, he was maybe more resourceful. But the dude was kind of a rat. He was always saying sleazy things about women.
Fermin was Daniel's main help in investigating Julian Carax and he did help a lot.
Fermin had some run-ins with the law. He'd changed his name many times, and had run into Fumero many times. He was framed by Fumero for murdering Nuria Monfort, but he somehow escaped and came to help Daniel.
In the end, he married Bernarda, and four kids with her.
Fermin was the biggest example to me of a character who was good simply because we were told he had a heart of gold, because he was loyal to Daniel and Sempere. However, his behaviour was slimy and uncomfortable and I didn't like him as much as the author had hoped I would.
Francisco Javier Fumero
The main antagonist in both past and present story lines.
In the past, he was a classmate of Julian, Miquel, Jorge, and Fernando. However, he was looked down upon. I believe his father might have been a janitor, though I can't remember correctly. His mother was laughed at for being kind of tacky. In addition, he was said to have killed small animals. While killing animals was a big red flag, the fact that his parents were tacky was not a good enough reason for him to have been considered a character worth laughing at. Even in his adulthood, people laughed at him for things that happened to him as a child (wearing the sailor suit to the party).
Fumero was also in love with Penelope, and that was why he wanted to hunt down Julian. He had somehow found out that Penelope and Julian were half-siblings (how?) and he wanted to tell Julian to torture him. So Fumero's deal was really more that he wanted to torture Julian than it was about him loving Penelope.
In the present, Fumero was a corrupt and violent cop. He bullied Fermin a lot. He was also onto Daniel because he'd found out that Daniel was investigating Julian Carax. Fumero had Daniel followed and also attacked to get him to stop poking his nose where he didn't want it.
Fumero followed Daniel to the abandoned Aldaya house where he found Julian. I don't think he ever managed to tell Julian the truth. A police detective who sympathized with Daniel was kind of trying to stop Fumero from hurting anyone. Guns were fired, but no one died. The confrontation was covered up and said to have been Fumero taking down a gang, and preparations were in order for a street to be named after Fumero.
Fumero was kind of comically evil and that made it difficult for me to take him seriously. And like I said, a lot of the way people treated him when he was a kid was just people being mean to him for no reason and that didn't really endear the supposed good guys to me.
Nuria Monfort
Nuria was Isaac's daughter, who happened to be deeply connected to the Julian Carax case.
Nuria worked for a publishing house in France where she met and fell in love with Julian Carax. However, he was still in love with Penelope and never loved Nuria back despite them occasionally having sex.
Nuria was also kind of the middle person between Julian and Miquel, and through those correspondences, Miquel fell in love with Nuria, though both knew that Nuria was in love with Julian and would never stop. Nuria eventually married Miquel.
When Miquel died, he was misidentified as Julian, and so when Julian was found, Nuria presented him as her husband Miquel. Nuria took care of Julian, and struggled with bad employers to put food on the table for both of them. Eventually, Julian left Nuria, who continued her work as a translator.
Daniel's investigation led him to Nuria, who told some truths and some lies. She purposefully did so because she did not want Julian to find out that Penelope was his half-sister.
Nuria was killed by Fumero. Before she died, she entrusted a letter to her father that would be passed on to Daniel in event of her death. The letter outlined everything that Nuria knew, in hopes that Daniel would drop the topic and protect Julian. The whole letter felt kind of like a copout because Nuria was just giving it to Daniel. It would have been more interesting to catch Nuria doing more shady things and to have them revealed one by one to us.
Isaac Monfort
Isaac managed the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, where Daniel first met him. It was Isaac who referred Daniel to his estranged daughter who knew some things about Julian Carax. However, Isaac remained distant with his daughter their whole lives. They both knew that Nuria had secrets that she wouldn't tell her father. Nonetheless, there was love between them.
Honestly, Isaac and Nuria was a pretty interesting family relationship because Nuria kept her father at a distance despite loving him, and Isaac was not brave enough to bridge the gap and be a person her daughter could confide in. It was one of the more complex relationships in this book.
Julian Carax
Julian was Daniel in another life. Honestly. The point was that Julian saw himself in Daniel, but considering Daniel was kind of a nothingburger, so was Julian.
Julian was the bastard child of Sophie and Don Ricardo Aldaya, though Julian did not know that. The only father he knew was Antoni Fortuny. Fortuny was not a loving father, and was abusive to his wife and child (whom he knew was not his).
Julian charmed Don Ricardo Aldaya (who knew that he was his son), and through Aldaya, Julian got a spot in the prestigious private school. His best friend at the school was Miquel Moliner. However, for the purpose of becoming close with Penelope, Julian befriended Jorge, sucked up to the Aldayas, etc.
Julian had planned to run away to Paris with Penelope with the help of Miquel. Soon after he revealed the plan to Penelope, they were found out by Penelope's mother who of course told her father. Penelope was locked in a cell. Miquel knew this, but he did not tell Julian, continuing to help him run away, because he knew that Julian would never leave if he knew and that would be certain death for him.
In Paris, Julian wrote his books and that was how Nuria met him. However, when she met him in person, she saw that he was kind of a ghost, that his heart was still with Penelope. Miquel supported Julian's writing career to the point of becoming poor.
Julian returned to Barcelona to find Penelope and their son David dead. He hated that he had spent all that time away from Penelope writing books when he did not know that all of this had happened. And that started Julian's path of hatred. He wanted to destroy all of the books he'd written. He was the Lain Coubert of his stories that had bought up all of his books and burned his warehouses. He'd become very disfigured in a fire and that was how he had come to be in the care of Nuria.
Julian eventually became a murderer, killing those who were bad or immoral, such as Nuria's boss.
Julian had approached Daniel for his book, but Daniel had refused. Julian continued to follow Daniel, only to find himself inspired by Daniel, seeing that there was good in his books if they fell in the hands of someone like Daniel.
Julian lay low at the abandoned Aldaya house. He'd dug up the bodies of Penelope and David. When Bea fled there, he helped her too, seeing a bit of Penelope in her. Julian and Fumero had a confrontation in the end, but Julian got away.
When Daniel was in the hospital, he found that his pen had been taken though nobody saw anyone come into his room. He knew it was Julian Carax, who had taken it and started to write books again, one of which he dedicated to Daniel.
Like I said, Julian was just another version of Daniel. At one point I'd wondered if Julian was actually Daniel's real father but that did not turn out true. Julian finding inspiration in Daniel was a bit whatever, particularly because I didn't care for Daniel.
Penelope Aldaya
Penelope was Julian's lover. In the words of Nuria, she was perpetually 17 years old, so it was kind of annoying to her that she was constantly losing to a 17 year old.
When her parents found out about her relationship, Penelope was locked up, and of course she ended up pregnant (for maximum drama). She was not allowed to go anywhere, and her governess Jacinta was dismissed for abetting her trysts.
Penelope had been forced to write a letter to Julian (when he was in Paris), telling him that she was going to get married and that she could never love him. We are to believe that she was forced to write the letter under duress. Penelope gave birth to a stilborn son and died.
Jacinta Coronado
Jacinta was Penelope's governess who loved her as a mother did. Jacinta was another example of a person who was good because the story said so. She allowed for Penelope and Julian to see each other, because she felt that he was good for her. That may be true, but it was a bit of a juvenile reason in my opinion.
When Penelope's parents found out about Penelope's relationship, Jacinta was dismissed and not allowed to see Penelope or anyone at the Aldaya house. Don Aldaya also had her committed to a mental hospital. It was there that Daniel and Fermin found her and interviewed her.
In the end, it seems Julian had visited her and she promptly passed.
Jorge Aldaya
Jorge was Julian's classmate and Penelope's brother. At first, we were led to believe that Julian and Jorge were best friends. However, Fernando revealed that Julian was actually best friends with Miquel, and then we found out that Julian likely only became close to Jorge because he liked Penelope.
After Jorge found out about Julian and Penelope's relationship, he became very angry. I think he probably intercepted all of Julian's letters to Penelope. Jorge knew that Miquel was helping Julian and it was him who gave Miquel the letter from Penelope to Daniel.
Jorge had left with his parents to the Americas. When he returned to Barcelona, he was still full of hate. Fermin used his hatred to find Julian. I believe Jorge confronted Julian in a duel on Julian's wedding day and told him the truth about Penelope (and possibly about them being half-siblings?). However, Julian killed Jorge in the duel, when previously it was believed that Julian had died in the duel.
Miquel Moliner
Miquel was Julian's best friend. He helped Julian escape, and hid the fact of Penelope's captivity from Julian to keep him safe. When Julian became a writer, Miquel bought his books, to the point of going broke. His brothers were working together to kick him out of a family home.
Miquel was in love with Nuria. Despite knowing that she was in love with Julian, they got married. Miquel began to fall ill and Nuria continued to take care of him. Miquel eventually gave his life to protect Julian.
Fernando Ramos
Fernando was another classmate who'd become a priest and teacher at the school that Julian, Miquel, Jorge, Fernand, and Fumero had attended.
Daniel and Fermin had interviewed Father Ramos who had directed them to Jacinta. In the end, Father Ramos had officiated Daniel and Bea's wedding, despite being more comfortable with teaching than officiating weddings.
Antoni Fortuny
Antoni Fortuny was Julian's adoptive father, and the person he knew to be his father growing up. He was the owner of a hat store. He was abusive to Sophie and Julian.
Antoni's luck had changed when Don Aldaya came around to buy a hat, though we later found out that he had done so purposely to take a look at his son. When Fortuny found Julian to be a bit too chummy with Aldaya, Fortuny approached Aldaya and told him that his son was actually not a good person in hopes of getting Aldaya away from his son. However, Aldaya came away from that having a more negative perception of Fortuny.
After Aldaya found out about Penelope and Julian's relationship, Aldaya approached Fortuny to arrange for Julian to go to the army. But Julian ran away before that.
Eventually, Fortuny and Sophie's relationship fell apart. Sophie finally left her abusive husband, and last we heard, she'd married a rich man and moved to Argentina. On the other hand, Fortuny fell on desolate times after he fell out of favour with Aldaya.
When Julian returned to Barcelona, Fortuny seemed to have become a very different man, very much willing to help Julian. He hid Julian from the cops. In his old age, Nuria was the one who took care of him. Apparently Fortuny also wrote to Sophie in Argentina, their son being the one thing they had in common.
I don't know how I feel about Fortuny. He was an abusive piece of shit, and then suddenly he turned into a different person. I wasn't even mad that he didn't get a redemption arc, he just felt like a completely different character that I didn't connect the new Fortuny with the old Fortuny. Did Fortuny feel bad about abusing his wife and kids? Not that I think Julian would have kicked him to the curb because the hate was always one-sided from Fortuny to Julian, but it was just kind of surprising.
Sophie Carax
Sophie was Julian's mother. She had had an affair with Aldaya and became pregnant. She married Fortuny, who had been pursuing her. Apparently he touched her once and was disgusted and never touched her again, so he knew that the baby wasn't his. Fortuny was abusive towards Sophie constantly. But Sophie didn't really have other options because of Julian.
It was Sophie who revealed to Nuria that Penelope and Julian were siblings. Sophie did eventually leave Fortuny and married a rich husband with whom she moved to Argentina.
After Fortuny died, Nuria wrote Sophie posing as a lawyer to ask for money to keep the apartment. That money was also partially used to support Nuria and Julian. Sophie did not question it, showing she still cared for Fortuny and Julian.
I feel like maybe Sophie should have had a bigger role. She was surprisingly absent in this story for someone who was a connecting piece between Penelope and Julian.
Don Ricardo Aldaya
Don Ricardo was the biological father of Jorge, Penelope, and Julian. He'd had an affair with Sophie but was kind of a douche so of course he wasn't going to leave his wife for Sophie.
Later in life, Aldaya found that he didn't like his son Jorge very much, so he turned to Julian. That was why he visited Fortuny's hat shop, why he had Julian enrolled in the private school. As mentioned, he liked Julian more than his adoptive father.
Aldaya was irate when he found out Penelope and Julian were in a relationship. At the time, Jorge realized that the anger was a bit overblown and it clued him into the fact that there was something else going on (Penelope and Julian being siblings). After Aldaya found this out, he had Julian expelled and arranged for him to go to the army. As well, he had Penelope locked up and she died in childbirth along with the baby because she wasn't given adequate care.
At that time, the Aldaya business was starting to not do so well, they were deep in debt. And that was why they left and went to South America. And that was why the Aldaya house was abandoned.
Themes
I think the strongest theme here was the parallels between Julian and Daniel. The first time this story was told, the protagonists met disastrous endings, Penelope and David died, and Julian was left to a life of hatred and vengeance.
When Julian saw himself in Daniel, he realized that there was a chance for things to go right. That was why he was intent on helping Daniel and Bea.
Overall
Maybe this book was overhyped for me, but I couldn't help but roll my eyes at parts of it because it was so morally black and white. The story was too fantastical and fairy tale-like.
The writing also stuck out to me because I didn't like it. It was too direct and cliched. The author did a lot of telling and not showing.
I might have enjoyed this book if I was ten years younger, but alas, I am not.