Bright Summaries - The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (Book Analysis): Detailed Summary, Analysis and Reading Guide

The story of Julin Carax, the author of the fictional novel The Shadow of the Wind, is told through a letter written by Nuria, one of his acquaintances, to Daniel. However, this is not revealed until the end of the book.

Nuria is working for Cabestany Editores in Barcelona, which is where she meets Julin. He invites her to stay with him during a trip to Paris in 1933, and the two of them grow closer and become lovers. Nuria falls in love with Julin, but she realises that he still has feelings for Penlope Aldaya, a former lover whom he has not seen since 1919.

When she gets back to Barcelona, Nuria learns from Julins childhood friend Miquel Moliner that he and Penlope are actually brother and sister, although neither of them is aware of this fact. When their biological father Ricardo Aldaya found out about their relationship, he intervened and Julin managed to avoid being forced to join the army by his father and Mr Aldaya by escaping to Paris, with Moliners help. He believed that Penlope would join him there shortly, but was unaware that she had fallen pregnant with his child and that she would be held prisoner by her father before dying while giving birth to a stillborn child.

After Penlopes death, Ricardo and his son Jorge leave for Argentina. When Ricardo is on his deathbed, Jorge promises him that he will kill Julin. After living in poverty for several years, he returns to Barcelona, where he meets a policeman and former classmate of Julins called Javier Fumero, who is also trying to kill him because he was in love with Penlope too. Fumero takes Jorge under his wing and kindles his hatred for Julin. He uses Jorge to lure the author to Barcelona and Julin takes the bait, returning to the city at the start of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).

Nuria and Miquel, who are now married, hear that Julin is back and go looking for him. They eventually find him just as Fumeros henchmen are preparing to kill him. Miquel then decides to pretend to be Julin and dies in his place. When Julin comes across Penlopes grave, he blames himself for her death and is consumed by rage that he is still alive but she has had to die. He goes to the Cabestany warehouse and begins to burn all of his books, which constitute his lifes work, and sustains severe burns himself in the process.

After this incident, Nuria takes him in and protects him from Fumero, who is still looking for him. The author gradually recovers, and in 1945 he takes refuge in the Aldaya familys former home. He then sets out to look for and destroy the last remaining copies of his books, including Daniels copy of The Shadow of the Wind , in order to eliminate every trace of his own existence.

After Daniel Semperes mother died when he was very young, he was raised by his father, a bookseller. At the age of ten, by which point he can no longer remember his mother, his father takes him to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, which is run by Isaac Montfort. Like every new visitor to the Cemetery, Daniel must adopt a book, and he chooses The Shadow of the Wind , a novel by Julin Carax, who is apparently dead. Later on, we learn that Isaacs daughter Nuria had hidden one copy of each of Caraxs books nine years earlier.

Daniel is captivated by the novel and finishes it the same day. He is eager to learn more about the inspiration behind the story and the life of its author, so he asks the bookseller Gustavo Barcel to help him. He then learns that he has the only copy of the book, as all the others were mysteriously burnt. He also meets and falls in love with Gustavos niece Clara. When he returns home, Daniel glimpses the silhouette of a man who looks like Lan Coubert, a character from the novel whose face is shrouded in darkness.

On Daniels 16 th birthday, this mysterious man offers to buy his copy of the book, but Daniel refuses. He is scared that the stranger will go after Clara, to whom he has given the book, so he goes to the Barcels house to get it back. When he gets there, he makes an unpleasant discovery: Clara is having an affair with her music teacher. Daniel is intensely disappointed and his feelings for her immediately fade. Following this revelation, he meets and befriends a homeless man called Fermn Romero de Torres. He subsequently decides to hide the book in a safe place, and chooses the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, where Isaac gives him the address of his daughter Nuria, who was friends with Julin.

In the autumn of 1953, Daniels father hires Fermn at the bookshop, while Daniel makes the most of his free time to reconnect with his childhood friend Toms Aguilar. He is still trying to find out more about Carax, and a series of mysterious events transpire: he sees Lan Coubert again, and an old photograph of Julin and a young girl in front of the Fortuny hat shop is left in the bookshop by a stranger.

Julian goes to the hat shop to continue his investigation. He finds out more about Julins childhood, including the names of two of his childhood friends, Jorge Aldaya and Miquel, and finds a love letter that Penlope Aldaya, the girl in the photograph, wrote to him. Daniel then enlists Fermn, who has an exceptional knack for detective work, to help him with his research. Later on, he goes to see Nuria, who tells him that Julin died in 1936.