Wednesday, June 9, 2010

THE ANGEL'S GAME by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

For those of you already familiar with "Shadow of the Wind" you'll no doubt be very excited about this book. As I was doing a little bit of research, it turns out that when the author began writing his fifth book SOTWind he was toying with the idea of four interconnected stories that featured some of the same characters and places. He soon realized that it would compromise the structure of "Shadow" and that it would have turned into a mammoth book. Consequently he decided to write 4 different novels. Stand alones yet connected at the same time. As he described it..."I saw them as a Chinese box of stories with four doors of entry, a labyrinth of fictions that could be explored in many directions, entirely or in parts, and that could provide the reader with an additional layer of enjoyment and play."

I am about half way through the book and find it equally as captivating as Shadow of the Wind. I'm so excited to know that there are still two more books to come! For anyone not familiar with Shadow please don't feel that you have to read that book first. You can most certainly start your journey into the beautiful and hypnotic world that Mr. Zafon has created with The Angel's Game.

The following was taken straight from the books cover....

In an abandoned mansion at the heart of Barcelona, a young man, David Martin, makes his living by writing sensationalist novels under a pseudonym. The survivor of a troubled childhood, he has taken refuge in the world of books and spends his nights spinning baroque tales about the city's underworld. But perhaps his dark imaginings are not as strange as they seem, for in a locked room deep within the house like photographs and letters hinting at the mysterious death of the previous owner.

Like a slow poison, the history of the place seeps into his bones a she struggles with an impossible love. Close to despair, David receives a letter from a reclusive French editor, Andreas Corelli, who makes him the offer of a lifetime. He is to write a book unlike anything that has ever existed----a book with the power to change hearts and minds. In return, he will receive a fortune, and perhaps more. But as David beings the work, he realizes that there is a connection between his haunting book and the shadows that surround his home.