Submitted by Dan Bieger (May 09, 2009)

First and foremost: thanks for the recommendation. I would not have discovered this book on my own. Could not agree with your assessment more. Like you, I have only a smattering of Spanish capability, but the English version is a truly marvelous translation. The language is absolutely perfect for the setting and the mood. Zafon exposes the story in bits and pieces, jumping here and there in a seemingly random fashion never quite telling everything about a scene and yet just enough to let the reader believe they know what is going on. The written word plays as much a role in the story as the characters. What Zafon masterfully demonstrates with this story is a line from the beginning of the book, spoken by the Curator of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books: “Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it.” I came away wanting to know, to read the novels Julian Carax had written, particularly The Angel of Mist Dan