I first read Carlos Ruiz Zafon's work a few years ago when I read his book Shadow Of The Wind which soon became one of my favourite books of all time for it was so gripping. When I saw that he had written more I couldn't wait to get stuck in and read! This book is translated but I don't find that this has any negative affect upon how it reads at all, you forget that it is and become lost in what is happening. I know some books which are translated are a little hesitant but that is not the case with this one. The book takes you through the life of Martin and who is a writer. It first introduces him when he is a teenager trying to find a way to work ...  Read the complete review

The Angel's Game by Spanish author Carlos Ruiz Zafon is set in the same 20th century Barcelona as The Shadow of the Wind, an earlier book by the same author. I Shadow of the Wind quite a while ago, when it came out in English I think, so although I didn't really remember it I did remember I enjoyed the story and so wanted to read another by the same author. The Angel's Game was only £3.99 on amazon, so with it being so cheap I thought, where can I go wrong? PLOT David Martin is a young aspiring writer living in Barcelona and working without much hopes of ever getting published, for a local newspaper. However, one day his editor calls him to his ...  Read the complete review

Carlos Ruiz Zafon's new book "The Angels Game" is the long anticipated follow up to the smash success of "The Shadow of the Wind", a book set in Barcelona after the Spanish civil war focussing on a boy called Daniel who is intent on finding an author of a book he has chosen from the "Cemetery of Forgotten Books." It feels like ages since I read "the Shadow of the Wind" and although I'm struggling to remember the details of it, I knew that I loved every minute of it, and therefore I couldn't wait to get into this one. Once again the story returns the reader to the Cemetery of Forgotten books where a lot of the action in ...  Read the complete review

A couple of years ago I was lent a copy of Carlos Ruiz Zafon's Shadow of the Wind. Taking up the advice, I read it, and was immediately drawn into the author's portrayal of Barcelona across the 20th Century, as his lead character pursued a literary quest among the dark and sinister streets, and discovered the mysterious Cemetery of Forgotten Books. Entranced, it was with bated breath that I awaited the translation of the prequel, The Angel's Game, and my wife treated me to it as a a birthday present earlier this year. I have recently finished reading it, and whereas Shadow of the Wind was a slow and relaxing book to read, Angels' Game took ages to get going ...  Read the complete review

Back in 2005, I read The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón for the first timw, and I was captivated. I read it in Spanish and English, and found it worked just as well in both although was better in the original Spanish. I actually had a very strange sense of déjà vu when starting it in Spanish, until I realised that the opening pages had been the translation passage in my final exams at uni - even that didn't spoil my enjoyment of the novel! So it was with great excitement that I heard of Ruiz Zafón's new novel, The Angel's Game, earlier this year. It was only out in hardback and I was a bit strapped for cash, so I ordered it from my local library. A ...  Read the complete review