??The whole of Barcelona stretched out at my feet and I wanted to believe that?? when I opened those windows?? its streets would whisper stories to me?? secrets I could capture on paper and narrate to whomever cared to listen...??
In an abandoned mansion at the heart of Barcelona?? a young man?? David Mart?n?? makes his living by writing sensationalist novels under a pseudonym. The survivor of a troubled childhood?? he has taken refuge in the world of books and spends his nights spinning baroque tales about the city??s underworld. But perhaps his dark imaginings are not as strange as they seem?? for in a locked room deep within the house lie photographs and letters hinting at t"eath of the previous owner.
Like a slow poison?? the history of the place seeps into his bones as he struggles with an impossible love. Close to despair?? David receives a letter from a reclusive French editor?? Andreas Corelli?? who makes him the offer of a lifetime. He is to write a book unlike anything that has ever existed--a book with the power to change hearts and minds. In return?? he will receive a fortune?? and perhaps more. But as David begins the work?? he realizes that there is a connection between his haunting book and the shadows that surround his home.
Once again?? Zaf?n takes us into a dark?? gothic universe first seen in The Shadow of the Wind and creates a breathtaking adventure of intrigue?? romance?? and tragedy. Through a dizzingly constructed labyrinth of secrets?? the magic of books?? passion?? and friendship blend into a masterful story.
Years ago when I began working on my fifth novel The Shadow of the Wind I started toying around with the idea of creating a fictional universe that would be articulated through four interconnected stories in which we would meet some of the same characters at different times in their lives and see them from different perspectives where many plots and subplots would tie around in knots for the reader to untie. It sounds somewhat pretentious but my idea was to add a twist to the story and provide the reader with what I hoped would be a stimulating and playful reading experience. Since these books were in part about the world of literature books reading and language I thought it would be interesting to use the different novels to explore those themes through different angles and to add new layers to the meaning of the stories. At first I thought this could be done in one book but soon I realized it would make Shadow of the Wind a monster novel and in many ways destroy the structure I was trying to design for it. I realized I would have to write four different novels. They would be stand-alone stories that could be read in any order. I saw them as a Chinese box of stories with four doors of entry?? a labyrinth of fictions that could be explored in many directions?? entirely or in parts??