The gripping novels of Carlos Ruiz Zafón, an author who will be sorely 'Mist'
Monday, June 29, 2020 @ 12:41 PM
HEARING of the recent passing of Spain's best-selling author after Cervantes, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, at the age of just 55, has had many of us reaching for our copies of The Shadow of the Wind again – probably untouched for a decade and a half on average – and discovering elements in it we missed the first time around.
This is often the case with a book or film we check in with again after a long hiatus and, in the case of Ruiz Zafón's massive hit, may well spur many of us on to buy and devour his long string of others – especially given that even the sequels to it have been overshadowed by his masterpiece of 2001. To such an extent, in fact, that many avid readers may be unable to name his other titles, particularly the early ones aimed at a younger audience.
Yet they may be missing out on entire new worlds created by the writer who is, arguably, Spain's King of Mystery and Suspense, sometimes based upon real life, sometimes fantasy, sometimes both, and frequently sinister, gripping and labyrinthine in its twists and turns, with impressive and vivid historical detail.
Ruiz Zafón was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2018 whilst on holiday in London, two years after finishing his last novel, and in a tragic coup of irony, discovered it was terminal, like the main character in one of his best-loved books.
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