The biography of carlos ruiz zafón & the analysis of his book "the shadow of the wind"

If you are the kind of person that love books, not just by reading them, but you also love to touch them, smell them and feel them, The Shadow of the Wind is a book that has been developed, crafted and written just for you. It is a book about books in Barcelona. A book about books hasn’t been crafted by an average author rather, it has been written by an exceptionally book-obsessed author that writes at the highest standards and can express through words much more than just a story.

The author of this piece of extraordinary literature is named: Carlos Ruiz Zafón. Born in the warm and pleasant Barcelona of 1964, Zafón grew up being an average catalan kid that loved dragons. Around the age of 5 he knew that he wanted to be a writer, but he has never been sure where this early vocation came from. He went to the San Ignacio School of Sarria, a prestigious school in Barcelona, and then he decided to study Information Science. He was always a very creative kid with an immeasurable imagination and that led him to become the creative director of an important publicity agency in Barcelona, but in 1992, he decided to follow his true passion, he abandoned that world and decided to concentrate on the intriguing but also creative world of literature.

Zafón’s literary career began by publishing his first novel, El príncipe de la niebla. This novel became an astonishing success and won the Edebe Prize. With the money he earned from this book he satisfied his childhood dream by going to Los Angeles and explore the home of the cinema. When he was on the united states he wrote movie scripts, and at the same time he wrote novels. Being a movie lover and a bibliophile made him merge those two worlds, and as a result he wrote The Shadow of the Wind acclimated in a unique and culturally rich context of the post-Civil War Barcelona.

In this masterpiece Zafón incorporates resources that are commonly used in the cinema in order for the reader to forget that he is holding a piece of paper, and can feel the light and sounds that are hidden on the streets of the post-Civil War Barcelona. With this book about books he is capturing and enriching the feelings, sounds, smells, expressions, fears and characters of the Barcelona of his childhood writing imaginary stories that happen in the real places he knows best, the narrow and charming streets of Barcelona. Zafón has always been a humble hard worker, his inspiration not just came from the cinema and his hometown, but also from sticking his elbows to the table and developing an idea until he started sweating. The Shadow of the Wind, was translated into a number of different languages. It became a Best Seller, and soon became one of the biggest selling Spanish language books in the world selling over 10 million copies.

Zafón’s writing style has had the power to create walking tours of the book through Barcelona, tours that thread through the city’s narrow, sinuous streets tracking the movement of the characters and enabling you to feel as one more character of the story. Zafón has been able to write all the novels in Los Angeles, while still maintaining the vibe and the details of his native Barcelona in his books. He is now 54 years old and regardless of his success and fame, Zafón would rather meet a couple of friends for a quiet dinner than go to a party.