The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The Shadow of the Wind, though not finished by everyone, was very well-liked.  Those who hadn’t finished yet still said they were going to finish it, because they were enjoying it so much.  I think we would all recommend this book to those of you who didn’t get the chance to read it this month.

Some highlights of our discussion:

• Started slowly
• Great descriptions
• Fermin was hilarious – that might be the author himself coming through
• Easy to predict who Lain Coubert would turn out to be, but the other things were not so easy to predict
• Julian probably wanted to die in that warehouse fire
• Similarities between Daniel and Julian – same pen, Daniel had Julian to help him on his path. Both saved each others’ lives
• Nuria loved Julian even before she met him
• Daniel and Bea both said it felt like their books were waiting there for them before they were even born
• Julian and Penelope were drawn to each other, though they weren’t sure why – someone saw a show where that happened to a lot of adult siblings who weren’t raised together – they sort of misinterpret the connection
• Julian was trying to break out of his prison by destroying his words; Nuria was in a prison of unrequited love, trapped in a life she couldn’t get out of
• Fumero was evil from the beginning of his life (similar to A Good and Happy Child, not as weird as The Wasp Factory), but the sailor suit incident pushed him over the edge
• Devil characters – Fumero, Lain Coubert
• Acting as Lain Coubert might have made it easier for Julian to carry out his plans
• The meaning of the title – a hiding place that’s not really a hiding place?  Out in the open?  Secrets?
• Sophie was stalked, in a way, by 2 men that were so different
• Everyone loved Daniel’s father
• All of the women were so badly treated in their workplaces
• All of the main female characters had a very other-wordly air about them, sort of fragile and exotic, with secrets
• Nuria was haunted by Penelope, a woman she had never met and who was hardly described at all in the book
• The book is about Julian and his life, though he is not present in most of it
• The use of first person narrative from the perspectives of different characters worked so well and was so seamless
• Fumero & Julian – are their personalities a result of nature or nurture?  Julian always told dark stories, but never really hated the hatter
• Evil vs. moronic – do evil people think they’re doing the right thing? Is the absence of understanding right vs. wrong evil in itself?
• Descriptions of the war show a very scary time – no one knew who to trust or which side people were on