My dear reader,
I hope the story of Lily and Snow Flower has touched your heart as much as it did mine. And while the story of these two women has left me with a feeling of helplessness, I also admired their courage and resilience in facing their life’s difficulties. If their story sparked other thoughts in you, I’m curious to hear from you!
At its core, Lily’s story is about friendship, resilience, and finding one’s own voice. The narrator and protagonist is Lily herself, who writes down her story towards the end of her life. In this newsletter, we’re looking at another novel told from the point of view of the protagonist and narrator, who also tells us his story at a later point in his life.
A Book Named after a Book
The protagonist and narrator of The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón is a young man named Daniel, who lives with his father, the owner of a bookshop, in Barcelona. The earliest event of Daniel’s story takes place around 1940, when his father takes him to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. In this mystical library of rare and banned books, he may pick one book. His father tells him that the book he chooses will determine his own life’s story.
Daniel finds himself drawn to the novel The Shadow of the Wind by Julián Carax. After reading and being consumed by the novel, Daniel wants to find out more about the author and his other books. It soon turns out, however, that the life — and presumably the death — of Julián Carax is deeply mysterious and that the book in Daniel’s possession is the only existing copy.
Lives Interwoven: Stories within the Story
Over the following years, Daniel keeps searching for answers about Julián’s life, his books, and his mysterious death. In the pursuit of answers, he unravels a tragic love story that swept everyone around the unfortunate couple along with them.
With the help of his friends and their network, Daniel follows clue after clue — sometimes being led on what seems to be a wild goose chase and sometimes to a dead end. He also encounters several characters that at first seem to be only informants and then turn out to be central to the whole story.
It’s fascinating how Zafón has interwoven multiple timelines and storylines. While Daniel follows his clues like a detective, there’s always a piece of the puzzle that seems to be missing, so you never get to see the full picture — until the final pages of the novel.
It’s Time to Try Defying Destiny
Apart from the narrative choices, timelines and storylines, one core question kept returning to me: Is there really something like destiny and can we defy it by making our own choices?
At the beginning of the novel, Daniel is told that the book he chooses from the Cemetery of Forgotten Books will shape his path. Indeed, discovering the book and his fascination with it sends him on an investigative journey that continues to affect his life and the lives of those around him. Beyond that, there are noticeable parallels between Daniel’s experiences and those of Julián Carax, hinting at a potential tragedy in his own love life. And yet, through his choices, Daniel avoids the fate that befell Julián.
But still, the question of whether we can defy destiny remains — and the book offers no definite answer. And beyond destiny, Zafón’s novel invites us to think about the books we carry in our own lives.
Exploring your own Cemetery of Forgotten Books
So there’s one last question — a much lighter one than destiny’s (in)exorability — that Zafón’s novel has raised: Which books rest in my personal Cemetery of Forgotten Books? And that question, my dear book-lover, I want to leave you with today. What books have you laid to rest or banned and why? I’m curious to hear from you!
If you’d like to help keep the lantern lit on this journey through time and story, feel free to visit my Contribee page. Think of it as dropping a coin in the storyteller’s hat — no pressure, just a small gesture of appreciation.
And if you know someone who loves to get lost in good stories and explore the world through books, feel free to pass this newsletter along. There’s always room for a fellow traveler.
See you at the next campfire,
Kalypso
