This New York Times Bestseller by Carlos Ruiz Zafón was my first reading in the genre of magical realism. One definition I found of magical realism
The term magic realism describes contemporary fiction, usually associated with Latin America, whose narrative blends magical or fantastical elements with reality. – link
This was a story about a book, or rather about a mysterious author. Since books are a favorite subject of mine, my curiosity was piqued. A father takes his son to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books where the son can take one book. He chooses The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Caráx. The boy, Daniel, spends his life then in pursuit of discovering what happened to the author. His life ends up paralleling Caráx’s life and both lives dovetail into one another.
As I was reading, the story reminded me of the temper and tone of the Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events although I doubt anyone else would see the resemblance. There was even a similarly named love interest of Beatriz (Beatrice for Snicket.) I was also reminded of the Diane Duane book So You Want to be a Wizard where the heroine finds a book in the library that changes her life.
This is an engaging, intriguing and mysterious story where I could not imagine where it would end.
