The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

(London: Orion, 2002/2005), 510

  • "Every book you see here has been somebody's best friend. Now they only have us, Daniel." (4)
  • "Latin, young man. There's no such thing as a dead language, only dormant minds." (13)
  • "He had a good understanding of history and knew that the future could be read much more clearly in the streets, factories, and barracks than in the morning press." (18)
  • "If you ever have a daughter...it's sod's law that sooner or later she will break your heart." (70)
  • You can't read everything: "I could not help being overcome by a sense of sadness. I couldn't help thinking that if I, by pure chance, had found a whole universe in a single unknown book, buried in that endless necropolis, tens of thousands more would remain unexplored, forgotten forever. I felt myself surrounded by millions of abandoned pages, by worlds and souls without an owner sinking in an ocean of darkness, while the world that throbbed outside the library seemed to be losing is Memory, day after day, unknowingly, feeling all the wiser the more it forgot." (74-75)
  • "Presents are made for the pleasure of the one who gives them, not for the merits of those who receive them." (76)
  • "Television, my dear Daniel, is the Antichrist, and I can assure you that after only three or four generations, people will no longer even know how to fart on their own. Humans will return to living in caves, to medieval savagery, and to the general state of imbecility that slugs overcame back in the Pleistocene era. Our world will not die as a result of the bomb, as the papers say—it will die of laughter, of banality, of making a joke of everything, and a lousy hoke at that." (106-107, cf. ~2021-11-12-Amusing Ourselves to Death)
  • "A stranger sees us the way we are, not as they wish us to be." (180)
  • "You know what kids are like. Deep down, God has filled them with goodness, but they repeat what they hear at home." (207)
  • "The local school...[is] nothing but a production line for workers." (211)
  • "Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you." (215)
  • "Don't say anything, Daniel. Just forgive me, if you can." (335)
  • "Daniel, the father-son relationship is based on thousands of little white lies. Presents from the Three Kings, the tooth fairy, meritocracy, and many others." (336-337)
  • "Making money isn't hard in itself. What's hard is to earn it doing something worth devoting your life to." (385)
  • "Never underestimate the talent for forgetting that wars awaken, Daniel." (424)
  • Characters
    • Julián Carax: author of The Shadow of the Wind
    • Daniel Sempere: main character who discovers The Shadow of the Wind
    • Beatriz Aguilar: Daniel's wife, Tomás' sister
    • Fermín Romero de Torres: former spy who works for Daniel and his father
    • Tomás Aguilar: Daniel's best friend, Bea's brother
    • Don Gustavo Barceló: offers to buy The Shadow of the Wind from Daniel, who refuses
    • Clara Barceló: blind, Don Gustavo's niece, Daniel's childhood interest
    • Francisco Javier Fumero: the villain, police inspector
    • Miquel Moliner: Carax's childhood friend who sacrifices his life for him
    • Father Fernando Ramos: Carax's childhood friend who helps Daniel
    • Penélope Aldaya: Carax's lover (and half-sister)
    • Jorge Aldaya: Penélope's brother, Carax's friend
    • Jacinta Coronado: Penélope's devoted governess
    • Nuria Monfort: works for the publisher of Carax's novels, falls in love with Carax and marries Miquel
    • Mr. Monfort: guardian of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books

Source: Becca

Created: 2022-01-13-Thu
Updated: 2023-01-07-Sat