“The Shadow of the Wind” By Carlos Ruiz Zafon

After I ran a grief camp for kids in the summer of 2016, the hospice affiliated with that camp asked me to stick around. My dad had died suddenly two weeks before the camp, and I thought maybe working for a hospice was a safe place for me to be. I floated within different departments until I landed in the intake/admissions department. My supervisor said, “Sit here between Lillian and Charlotte.” I immediately got the shivers because my twin daughters’ names are Lily and Charlotte. I accept signs from the heavens and this was certainly one, and I have been working in intake/admissions ever since. Everyone who works in my department is not only kind, but also incredibly wise and intelligent. Earlier this year when I was heading to Barcelona, Lillian said to me, almost like a fortune-teller, “Then you must take along the book, The Shadow of the Wind.” I had never heard of the book by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, but of course I ordered it the next day. Originally published in 2001 in Spanish, the 565-page book is a novel-within-a-novel that takes place in Barcelona, circa 1945. The work of fiction begins as a coming of age story following the tale of an 11-year-old boy named Daniel and his widowed, book-dealer father. But when Daniel becomes fixated on one particular volume called “The Shadow of the Wind,” by the mysterious writer Julian Carax, the reader is taken on an odyssey through the streets of Barcelona. The twists and turns change Daniel and Julian’s lives forever, and bring harm and danger to the people around them.  This book has everything a good story should when you take it on vacation, including love, murder, mystery and even some magic. To purchase this book on Amazon click here.