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  • obvious, trite, foreseeable. i could tell who the phantom was from the start, but had to endure until page 510 for the plot to untangle. will i ever learn? it's from richard and judy book club, home of the worst books of my life.

    

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• ― Elsastella said on Jul 30, 2009 about the Paperback edition| 2 feedbacks| 2 feedbacks

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  • 　　西元 1945 年，由父親引領下，十歲的 Daniel Sempere 在巴塞隆納一間收藏絕版書籍的神秘書館 The Cemetery of Forgotten Books（遺忘書之墓）找到前所未聞的精彩小說"The Shadow of the Wind"。Daniel 拜讀後著迷不已，從此對彷彿魅影般的作者 Julián Carax 無比好奇。往後多年，他四處追尋這位英年早逝的奇才作家生前經歷， 與其它殘存作品下落。同時，卻發現有位惡魔般的怪客 Laín Coubert，也正在城市裡積極搜索著 Julián Carax 每本作品，目的卻是懷著恨意將它們盡數焚毀。隨著 Daniel 一步步 ... Continue

    　　西元 1945 年，由父親引領下，十歲的 Daniel Sempere 在巴塞隆納一間收藏絕版書籍的神秘書館 The Cemetery of Forgotten Books（遺忘書之墓）找到前所未聞的精彩小說"The Shadow of the Wind"。Daniel 拜讀後著迷不已，從此對彷彿魅影般的作者 Julián Carax 無比好奇。往後多年，他四處追尋這位英年早逝的奇才作家生前經歷 ，與其它殘存作品下落。同時，卻發現有位惡魔般的怪客 Laín Coubert，也正在城市裡積極搜索著 Julián Carax 每本作品，目的卻是懷著恨意將它們盡數焚毀。隨著 Daniel 一步步抽絲剝繭，關於 Julián Carax 的生平軌跡逐漸浮現，他竟察覺，這些屬於另一段時空的生死愛恨， 竟開始與自己的人生出現巧合般的奇妙重疊，而周遭的人們，也一一 被捲入這個籠罩迷霧與黑暗的巨大陰影裡…

    　　我讀的《風之影》是英文版，長達五百多頁。原作雖是西班牙文 ，但英文譯本字裡行間充滿詩意，加上用字遣詞流暢不刁難，因此購 入。沒買中文版是因為誠品打折後價差微乎其微，英文版封面設計卻 美觀太多，既然如此還需考慮嗎？經過數日努力不懈，順利閱畢，闔 上封底，心中頓時瀰漫感傷。《風之影》是個格局出乎意料龐大的故 事。從西元 1899 到 1955，相隔數十年時空的兩段主題，從單純序幕走向沈重結局， 情節卻如俄羅斯娃娃般，一層層各自呼應覆疊，交纏切割出回憶在心 中所能刻劃的任何傷口。

    　　閱讀過程經常使我想起金庸的《碧血劍》，寫作手法頗有異曲同 工之妙。《風之影》與《碧血劍》共通點在於，「現代」主角（Da niel ／袁承志）和「過去」主角（Julián ／金蛇郎君夏雪宜），原本毫無相關的兩段故事，透過一樣稀世珍品 （絕版書，和金蛇劍）互相連結起來。而「過去主角」性格特質皆更 鮮明、故事也更加淒美。彷彿在時光瓦片中逐漸拼湊出的遙遠人物， 才是所有悲歡離合的真正背負者。

    　　刻骨銘心的愛情與傷痛，是故事裡最重要的主軸。年輕 Julián 把對於遠方戀人 Penélope 的繾綣，變奏成一本本黑暗裡綻放光芒的小說，卻始終不知家鄉人事 已非。無論歲月流徙，他臉上永遠是遙遠、空洞的微笑，彷彿靈魂早 已遺落。Daniel 幸運許多，與 Bea 的情感經歷波折，最後終究圓滿。有些讀者認為 Beatriz 是個幾乎可刪除的角色，我反而覺得 Daniel 和 Bea 戀情的內心戲，是非常有趣、極為真實的重點支線，沒有 Beatriz，我們就無緣讀到 Daniel 少年初戀那種有時整顆心揪在一起，有時卻又坦白得令人捧腹大笑， 心情起伏描述得極為生動。況且，男性讀者們總需要 Beatriz 這樣可愛潑辣的角色來增加翻閱的「動力」嘛。

    　　親情和友情部份描寫極佳。例如 Daniel 與父親的互動變化，從故事初期，心碎的 Daniel 深夜落魄返家，父親仍守著生日禮物默默等待；到數年後某天見到沉 睡著的年邁父親，輕輕在他前額一吻，祈求時光暫時停留…這些溫馨 小細節都非常動人。而 Daniel 摯友兼忠僕 Fermín Romero de Torres 這位甘草角色實在精彩絕頂，對白句句辛辣幽默又蘊含智慧，倘若沒有 Fermín，整本小說的精彩程度保證大打折扣。Julián Carax 劇情部份， Miquel Moliner 的友情描述也很深刻，從在貴族學校裡的互相欽佩信賴，到後來經歷 離別，經歷戰亂，經歷窮困潦倒，依然毫不猶豫地捨命營救。這使我 反覆困惑，為什麼 Miquel 可以為 Julián 犧牲一切也沒有遺憾。話說回來，我們一生中又能找到多少如同 Julián 這般才氣洋溢，令自己由衷欽佩的摯友？

    　　而故事裡的沈重環節，往往環繞於 Nuria Monfort 這位神秘女子身上。 Nuria 並非如同 Beatriz 或 Penélope 那樣豔驚四座的女主角，她在整個故事裡卻更加關鍵，也更令人難以 忘懷。集孤獨、真實、深情、執著於一身的 Nuria，彷彿典型的天蠍座女子，敢愛敢恨，也甘願為愛守候。 閱讀她厚厚一章回憶手札，相信沒有幾位讀者捨得停頓，讀至信末那句 "Don't let me go"，幾乎讓我淚流滿面無法平復。當她在 Daniel 舉手投足間看見少年 Julián 的影子，不自覺投射出的是眷戀或是感傷，彷彿已細膩地無從辨析。 或許世上每個人都為另一個人而存在著，卻往往無法彼此回報。Mi quel 為 Nuria 而存在，Nuria 為 Julián 而存在，Julián 為 Penélope 而存在…每份愛恨，每份悲歡，週而復始，緊緊交扣，走出囚禁記憶 的牢籠，走向必然震撼的結局。

    　　《風之影》是本寫給愛書人的小說，相信每個熱愛閱讀藝術的讀 者們，都能在書店少年 Daniel 和作家 Julián 兩位主角各自的對白裡，找到熟悉的共鳴與感慨。值得附加一提的是 ，某天我在書店隨性翻閱著《風之影》中譯本，發現翻譯並不甚好， 雖然文詞流暢、用字口語化，卻少了精練與深刻。英文版裡雋永細膩 的筆觸在中文版裡褪色不少，充斥全書的黑色幽默也幾近流失殆盡。 譯者甚至將角色年齡算錯，將 Bea 譯為 Tomas 的姊姊，事實上她是妹妹才對（Daniel 和 Tomas 十九歲時，Bea 年僅十七歲），感到有些遺憾，但瑕不掩瑜便是。建議外語閱讀能力 不錯的讀者，盡可能選擇英文甚至原著西文版，將更能體會作者 Carlos Ruiz Zafón 悠遊於虛幻世界與真實人性間，深綴迷人的寫故事功力。

    

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• ― Oscar Cheng said on Aug 1, 2007 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • Much more than a thriller it appears to be.

  • Some compares it as a potboiler like the DaVinci Code, which is terribly unfair. I am not much tempted to know the ending - or, to be precise, the cause of all the strange incidents - rather than that, I just want to read the boy's heart. They say the story is invented but the sentiment must be true ... Continue

    Some compares it as a potboiler like the DaVinci Code, which is terribly unfair. I am not much tempted to know the ending - or, to be precise, the cause of all the strange incidents - rather than that, I just want to read the boy's heart. They say the story is invented but the sentiment must be true. I couldn't drop the book since Daniel, our hero, forgot his mother's face all in a sudden; how he encounters a beauty and spends several years just to adorn her; how he enters the lives of others to discover fate under the guise of coincidence. Sometimes the book makes me tremble and weep - the bittersweetness in life is just too powerful.

    (a very impressive) official site:
    http://www.lasombradelviento.net/
    (click 'los escenarios' on the bar)

    

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• ― fruit said on Apr 14, 2007 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

• .

  • A highly recommended item

  • I found myself taking more challenges in reading. Since the packed thrilling documentary of "The Minds of Billy Milligan", I challenged myself with a 500-paged translated Spanish fiction. I found the book on Anobii and attracted by the numerous positive comments on it.

    This book makes no disap ... Continue

    I found myself taking more challenges in reading. Since the packed thrilling documentary of "The Minds of Billy Milligan", I challenged myself with a 500-paged translated Spanish fiction. I found the book on Anobii and attracted by the numerous positive comments on it.

    This book makes no disappointment, it's truly impressive and exciting. It consists of both detective and sentimental elements. The story line develops along a young boy who traces the mysterious history of a vanished author while he himself is repeating his path. Carlos gives beautiful depiction of the city which is miserably wounded after WWI and the translator succeeded in maintaining the beauty of the language. I was always indulged with the bitter-sweet description of Barcelona, and the image of the fallen city has deepened the sorrow and rage of the tragic figures. The story was all the way intriguing until it reaches the climax which sounds a bit bizarre to me. However, I love the ending as it's wrapped with warmth and sweetness. The author has rounded up the story for every single character and yet makes the ending coherent to the beginning. It gives a sense of fluidity and continuity. It's a highly recommended item.

    One more note to make: The title of the fiction is well chosen as it's as same as the trigger of the whole mystery and adventure. Besides, the war shadows the city, the vanished author shadows the young boy. Shadow is the key figure in the entire story.

    

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• ― Bus Reader said on Nov 30, 2009 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • 好看,故事人物都有悲慘而不幸的過去,天意弄人吧?

    

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• ― Yanyantse666 said on Oct 1, 2009 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • The Shadow of the Wind

  • Part Gothic mystery, part Spanish soap opera - completely enthralling.

    

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• ― Readingrat said on Apr 28, 2009 about the Hardcover edition| Add your feedback

The international literary sensation-a runaway bestseller in Spain, rights sold in more than 20 countries-about a boy's quest through the secrets and shadows of postwar Barcelona for a mysterious author whose book has proved as dangerous to own as it is impossible to forget.

Barcelona, 1945-just after the war, a great world city lies in shadow, nursing its wounds, and a boy named Daniel awakes on his eleventh birthday to find that he can no longer remember his mother's face. To console his only child, Daniel's widowed father, an antiquarian book dealer, initiates him into the secret of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a library tended by Barcelona's guild of rare-book dealers as a repository for books forgotten by the world, waiting for someone who will care about them again. Daniel's father coaxes him to choose a volume from the spiraling labyrinth of shelves, one that, it is said, will have a special meaning for him. And Daniel so loves the novel he selects, The Shadow of the Wind by one Julian Carax, that he sets out to find the rest of Carax's work. To his shock, he discovers that someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book this author has written. In fact, he may have the last one in existence. Before Daniel knows it his seemingly innocent quest has opened a door into one of Barcelona's darkest secrets, an epic story of murder, magic, madness and doomed love. And before long he realizes that if he doesn't find out the truth about Julian Carax, he and those closest to him will suffer horribly.

As with all astounding novels, The Shadow of the Wind sends the mind groping for comparisons-The Crimson Petal and the White? The novels of Arturo Pérez-Reverte? Of Victor Hugo? Love in the Time of Cholera?-but in the end, as with all astounding novels, no comparison can suffice. As one leading Spanish reviewer wrote, "The originality of Ruiz Zafón's voice is bombproof and displays a diabolical talent. The Shadow of the Wind announces a phenomenon in Spanish literature." An uncannily absorbing historical mystery, a heart-piercing romance, and a moving homage to the mystical power of books, The Shadow of the Wind is a triumph of the storyteller's art.

Translated by Lucia Graves.

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