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The Labyrinth of the Spirits: From the bestselling author of The Shadow of the Wind

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Cierro la cancela de esta inmensa catedral de volúmenes. Me abrocho bien el abrigo, el cual he rellenado de papel de periódicos, pues afuera, en la Barcelona gótica de mis sueños, llueve y hace frío. Enfilo la calle Arco del teatro hacia las Ramblas, la Plaza Real a la derecha y la estatua de Colón detrás. Alzo la vista, y a lo lejos, entre la niebla, se vislumbra el cementerio de Montjuic, donde las almas descansan en paz. Me palpo los bolsillos y sonrío, pues Fermín me los ha rellenado de Sugus. Saco uno, le quito el envoltorio y me lo llevo a la boca. La lluvia arrecia, pero yo ya no tengo frío. Barcelona, la ciudad de los libros y las rosas, se disuelve en mi memoria. Ganó Eros y perdió el Parnaso. Gente, lo que están a punto de ver no se lo pueden contar a nadie...bienvenidos al Cementerio de los Libros Olvidados. ♡ The cemetery of the forgotten books does not have a single entrance as we thought; it is possible that you would fall on it from the ceiling if you were your name Alithia and an angel at nine years old with a bomb that detonated your waist and left you with the imprint of the pain that kills the soul; thus Alithia gained her connection with the book: Alice In the land of wonders, books are literally saved by them ... not figuratively like our former heroes Zig-zagged by Fermin upon the death of Franco. Seeing the world as an inherently corrupt place, Fermin tells Julian that nothing will really change, only the people running the country, who will probably be as corrupt as Franco but in different ways. Fate Worse than Death: Valls considers his circumstances to be this. At two points he tries to convince people to kill him rather than free him.

Nine-year-old Alicia lost her parents during the Spanish Civil War when the Nacionales (the fascists) savagely bombed Barcelona in 1938. Twenty years later, she still carries the emotional and physical scars of that violent and terrifying time. Weary of her work as an investigator for Spain’s secret police in Madrid, a job she has held for more than a decade, the twenty-nine-year old plans to move on. At the insistence of her boss, Leandro Montalvo, she remains to solve one last case: the mysterious disappearance of Spain’s Minister of Culture, Mauricio Valls. Ambiguously Bi: Alicia has some Ship Tease with Vargas, Daniel, and Fernandito, but also imagines herself forcefully kissing Bea, and ruminates on her beauty and desirability often throughout the novel. Action Girl: Alicia's very reputation in the secret police, and the reason she's so highly valued as an asset. Before the book is over, she's disfigured an attempted rapist, shot and killed multiple guys, and killed a man by jamming a pen through his eye and pushing him off a ledge. According to me, not only does reading them unchronologically seem unenjoyable, but also incoherent. I don't think one would understand or feel the emotional punches present in any of the books, without foreknowledge of the plot preceding it. Put on a Bus: Bea's ex-boyfriend, the secondary antagonist of the The Prisoner of Heaven, is completely absent, and the reader never learns why Valls sent him to meet with her in the previous book.

This work contains examples of:

This is the golden rule that sustains every artifice of paper and ink. Because when the lights go out, when the music ends and the stalls are empty again, the only thing that matters is the mirage that has been engraved in the theater of the imagination all readers hold in their mind. This, and the hope every maker of tales carries within: that readers will open their hearts to these little creatures made of ink and paper, and give them a part of themselves so they can be immortal, even if only for a few minutes.” Some short stories, either directly or indirectly set on the same universe, were published in a compillation named The City of Vapor, released after Zafón's death in 2020. After she's captured, Alicia escapes Rovira by shooting him in the face at point-blank-range, blowing off a chunk of it but leaving him alive for a while before she finally kills him by shooting him in the torso. Sobre el final pienso que Zafón no tuvo alternativa. Con otro final, de inmediato la pregunta sería ¿Quién es el protagonista de la tetralogía? Pero diciendo que Julián está contando la historia de su familia, convierte el final en un truco sacado de la manga para solucionar el problema que se le estaba viniendo de hacer cuatro historias paralelas con protagonistas distintos. ¿Me gustó? Más que gustarme me pareció correcto porque ser testigo del triste final de algunos personajes no me puede dejar contento. Debido a ese final fue que sentí tristeza por acabar esta tetralogía, más que todo por el final de Carax y por Juan Sempere con su vacío existencial que me parte el corazón. N

Thank you to Lucia Graves for the superb English translation, and most of all, thank you to Carlos Ruiz Zafón for writing such an outstanding series.

As Alicia and Vargas come closer to finding Valls, they uncover a tangled web of kidnappings and murders tied to the Franco regime, whose corruption is more widespread and horrifying than anyone imagined. Alicia's courageous and uncompromising search for the truth puts her life in peril. Only with the help of a circle of devoted friends will she emerge from the dark labyrinths of Barcelona and its history into the light of the future.

What the Hell, Hero?: As part of working himself up to murder Valls, Daniel attempts to rape his wife. Of course, Bea being Bea, she slaps the crap out of him instead. Zafon responds to us denouncing: Have you ever met someone who did or wrote what was not written yet? I write your life: as a readerAs a child, Daniel Sempere discovered among the passageways of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books an extraordinary novel that would change the course of his life. Now a young man in the Barcelona of the late 1950s, Daniel runs the Sempere & Sons bookshop and enjoys a seemingly fulfilling life with his loving wife and son. Yet the mystery surrounding the death of his mother continues to plague his soul despite the moving efforts of his wife Bea and his faithful friend Fermin to save him.

Carlos Ruiz Zafon writes with such beauty and descriptiveness, mirroring that of the first book "The Shadow of the Wind". Although this was a large book , Zafon’s writing had me completely ensnared in the plot that I only put it down when I felt too tired. He brings both beauty and humour, as well as tragedy to his writing. Meaningful Name: Rodrigo Hendaya, the stylish Francoist inspector. His first name evokes El Cid Campeador, a historical figure Francoists loved to glorify (and subject to heavy revisionism in the process), while his surname references the Meeting at Hendaye between Francisco Franco and Adolf Hitler. What Does She See in Him?: Fermin invokes this to Daniel regarding Bea. As the book goes on and Daniel becomes more bitter, neurotic, and withdrawn, Fermin points out that he's becoming someone unworthy of her affection. Alicia has similar thoughts while fantasizing about Bea, although she also contemplates life with Daniel herself.

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Moving and engaging. This is a novel to lose oneself in, and it promotes the sort of reading experience we remember from childhood - of complete absorption into a fantasy world'- Irish Times In short, it’s all of these things, and never more so than in Labyrinth, where Ruiz Zafon brings to a close the twisty story he launched in THE SHADOW OF THE WIND. Affably Evil: Leandro, a kindly, avuncular figure who treats his proteges as his children, and who in contrast to his more brutal colleagues performs his interrogations over tea in a luxury hotel (albeit with a low dose of heroin to loosen his subjects' lips). None of that prevents him from having had dozens of families murdered so their children could be sold to Franco sympathizers, or orchestrating a series of further murders to help cover up his past crimes. Rotating Protagonist: The book begins from Daniel's POV and then periodically switches heroes, with Fermin, Alicia, Vargas, Isabella Sempere and finally Julian Sempere sharing duties across their various storylines.

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