The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. Short summary

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Daniel Sempere’s bookish father takes him to a place hidden to others, the Graveyard of Forgotten Books. There the boy finds a book and tries to find its author. This threatens his life.

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The first novel in the series The Cemetery of Forgotten Books.

1945 The bookseller Sempere brings his son Daniel to a hidden place in the heart of Barcelona, the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. Daniel finds a «cursed» book there. He sets out to find the author of this fascinating novel.

But Daniel was involved in a whole labyrinth of intrigue. He is hindered by Laing Kuber, a devil from a parallel world. Kuber tries to kill Daniel. The police inspector Javier Fumero also sticks in the wheels. He was a sadistic Frankist interrogator during the war.

Daniel investigates that the author of the only copy of the novel is the writer Julian Carax. As fate would have it, all of his talented works are doomed to oblivion. Daniel investigates his biography. The son of a hatter, Carax lived in Paris between the two World Wars.

Daniel falls in love with Clara, but then finds happiness with Beatrice. At the end of the book, he reveals the secret of Carax — he is alive in the pages of his books. Laing Kuber kills Fumero and takes his soul to hell.