Carlos Ruiz Zafón es uno de los autores más leídos y reconocidos en todo el mundo. Inicia su carrera literaria en 1993 con El Príncipe de la Niebla (Premio Edebé), a la que siguen El Palacio de la Medianoche, Las Luces de Septiembre (reunidos en el volumen La Trilogía de la Niebla) y Marina. En 2001 se publica su primera novela para adultos, La Sombra del Viento, que pronto se transforma en un fenómeno literario internacional. Sus obras han sido traducidas a más de cuarenta lenguas y han conquistado numerosos premios y millones de lectores en todo el mundo. www.eljuegodelangel.comwww.carlosruizzafon.com
Fans of Zafón’s The Shadow of the Wind and new readers alike will
be delighted with this gothic semiprequel. In 1920s Barcelona,
David Martin is born into poverty, but, aided by patron and friend
Pedro Vidal, he rises to become a crime reporter and then a beloved
pulp novelist. David’s creative pace is frenetic; holed up in his
dream house—a decrepit mansion with a sinister history—he produces
two great novels, one for Vidal to claim as his own, and one for
himself. But Vidal’s book is celebrated while David’s is buried,
and when Vidal marries David’s great love, David accepts a
commission to write a story that leads him into danger. As he
explores the past and his mysterious publisher, David becomes a
suspect in a string of murders, and his race to uncover the truth
is a delicious puzzle: is he beset by demons or a demon himself?
Zafón’s novel is detailed and vivid, and David’s narration is
charming and funny, but suspect. Villain or victim, he is the hero
of and the guide to this dark labyrinth that, by masterful design,
remains thrilling and bewildering. (June) -- Publishers Weekly,
starred Review
Another delicious supernatural mystery from bestselling Catalan
author Zafón (The Shadow of the Wind, 2005).Mix Edgar Allan Poe
with Jorge Luis Borges, intellectual mysterian Arturo
Pérez-Reverte, and maybe add a dash of Stephen King, and you have
some of the makings of Zafón’s sensibility. Fans of his earlier
book will be pleased to find themselves on patches of familiar
ground, including a revisit to that wonderful conceit, the Cemetery
of Forgotten Books. Indeed, this is a prequel–but only of a kind:
Familiar figures turn up at points, only to seem less than familiar
as the narrative twists and turns. The none-too-heroic hero, David
Martín, is an aspiring journalist who bucks hackwork to turn in a
crowd-pleasing series for a tough boss. This leads him into an
onerous contract with the usual crooked publishers and, indirectly,
into a rivalry with his former mentor–all of which, naturally,
entails love triangles and smoldering egos. The picture is
complicated by the arrival of another curious publisher, Andreas
Corelli, who offers David piles of pesetas to write, well, a book
of a different sort, involving research that yields piles of
corpses and occasions ample cliffhangers. Zafón has a fine talent
for inserting unexpected hitches into a story line already
resistant to graphing, whose outcome is definitely not seen from
afar. The plot resolves in a rush, for the author finds himself
with many a loose end to tie up, but once it sinks in, the result
is more than satisfying. Zafón delivers a warning about the dangers
of obsession, mixed with an obvious passion for literature and the
printed word; his book is also a song of love for Barcelona with
all its creaking floorboards and hidden subbasements.A nice fit
with the current craze for learned mysteries and for spooks of both
the spying and the spectral kind. -- Kirkus Reviews
Praise for The Shadow of the Wind
“One gorgeous read”—Stephen King
“Diabolically good”—Elle magazine
“Superbly entertaining”—Washington Post
“Breathtaking”—New York Times
“Wondrous”—Entertainment Weekly
“Magic”—New York Times Book Review
“Absolutely marvelous”—Kirkus
“Infectious”—The Economist
“Outstanding”—Library Journal
“Lavish”—Booklist
“Gripping”—Philadelphia Inquirer
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