THE SHADOW OF THE WIND—Carlos Ruiz Zafón—Recommended (as well as purchased for us) by Pablo Alvarez-Alvarez, our AFS son from Spain, “Shadow of the Wind” lives up to the high praise of the reviewers. Kirkus Reviews said it “will keep you up nights—and it will be time well spent. Absolutely marvelous”, while The Washington Post opines, “Anyone who enjoys novels that are scary, erotic, touching, tragic an thrilling should rush right out to the nearest bookstore and pick up The Shadow of the Wind. Really you should.” A book about a book, parallel stories between the two, taking place in Barcelona immediately following WWII, the descriptions of life are vivid; in fact, this book is an exemplar of what wonderful writing and story telling can be. The characters are so well crafted you 'know' them yet they aren't so predictable they aren't amazingly interesting; and Fermin Romero de Torres makes statements about life, and it's situations, that leap from the page with accuracy or provoking of thought. It’s one of those books you can hardly wait to finish, to come to a resolution, but one you really don’t want to be over. In the time it takes to read it, you’ve become friends.