When I want to learn about another country I will turn to all the usual sources: history books, travel guides, online articles, etc. Turning to a novel would not be my first instinct.
But The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
A few years ago we had plans for a trip to Spain. The Shadow of the Wind was on the suggested reading list, so I thought I’d give it a try. Wow. Not really knowing what to expect, the book grabbed my imagination and kept me up late each night turning pages.
The story is difficult to convey in this short review. Besides, to understand the storyline would not be enough anyway. The novel is set in Barcelona and weaves together a fascinating cast of characters at different stages in history. All the themes that have shaped modern Spain are here, from Catholicism to Franco to the Civil War. But the book is more than just the sweeping issues that capture the headlines. This is a book about love, regret, fear, ambition, corruption, dreams, melancholy, and hope. This is a book about life and all the forces that shape our heart, mind and soul.
The writing is brilliant. Carlos Ruiz Zafón inserts little touches of wisdom and insight throughout the book, often in the dialogue between characters. There are gems such as these throughout:
“The day I die, all that was once mine will be yours…except my dreams.”
“Fools talk, cowards are silent, wise men listen.”
“A secret’s worth depends on the people from whom it must be kept.”
“A story is a letter that the author writes to himself, to tell himself things that he would be unable to discover otherwise.”
“Time goes faster the more hollow it is. Lives with no meaning go straight past you, like trains that don’t stop at your station.”
“One of the pitfalls of childhood is that one doesn’t have to understand something to feel it. By the time the mind is able to comprehend what has happened, the wounds of the heart are already too deep.”
And my personal favorite, “A room without books … is like a body without a soul.”
So yes, it is a great book and internationally acclaimed as such. But why is it on my list of the most influential books in my life?
For two reasons, one pragmatic and one more personal. Pragmatically, it made me realize that a beautifully written work of fiction could teach me about culture, place, history … all the things that shape a nation. I learned more about Spain from The Shadow of the Wind than all the other books combined.
Personally, the book awakened my love for literature that had been dormant. I devour books about ideas, history, human behavior, cultural awareness, and biographies. But I usually only read fiction to escape — a silly spy novel or a bubblegum for the brain murder mystery. It wasn’t always that way. I’ve read the works of Hemingway, Steinbeck, Twain, Dickens, Fitzgerald, Salinger … well, the list is endless. And I’ve enjoyed them. But for some reason I had slipped away from that joy. The Shadow of the Wind made me appreciate the beauty of the novel all over again.
Did it change my life? Not really, no. But it did change what I read. Like a diet that leaves out a crucial ingredient, I need a great novel in my life to be whole. And The Shadow of the Wind
Want to read more of my top 25? Here is the list thus far:
Celebration of Discipline – #1
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings – #2
The Cost of Discipleship – #3
The Screwtape Letters – #4
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – #5
Only the Paranoid Survive – #6
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold – #7
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – #8
Truman – #9
Shantaram – #10
The Maltese Falcon – #11
The Shadow of the Wind – #12
Survey of the New Testament – #13
Calvin & Hobbes – #14
Celtic Daily Prayer – #15
Managing the Nonprofit Organization – #16
A Wrinkle in Time – #17
The Practice of the Presence of God – #18
Catch 22 – #19
The Tortilla Curtain – #20
The Kingdom of God is a Party – #21
Earthkeeping – #22
Reviving Ophelia – #23
The Grapes of Wrath – #24
Peanuts – #25