Zafón recently published “The Angel’s Game,” a novel which is a prequel to “Shadow.” It already is the No. 1 bestseller in Spain, Germany, Norway, Italy and Portugal. This book opens in 1917 and closes in 1945. It is the second novel in a planned quartet.
It’s the story of David Martin, a writer who churns out pulp fiction under the pen name of Ignatius B. Samson for a Barcelona publishing house. Martin comes from humble origins. He is orphaned at a young age, his father mysteriously murdered in the street.
He finds a mentor in the wealthy Don Pedro Vidal. He gets David his first real job writing for a newspaper. David’s other great protector is Senor Sempere, the owner of a bookstore that his family has owned for four generations. He inspires David with a copy of “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens.
David is exhausted by the demands of his publishers to crank out more dreadful serial novels. He’s locked into a 20-year contract. His books sell like hotcakes, but his crooked publishers lie to him and steal the profits for themselves.
He locks himself away in his haunted mansion and fantasizes about the woman of his dreams, the daughter of Don Pedro’s chauffeur. He fails to notice that the young woman who delivers his groceries has eyes for him.
Early in the story Andreas Corelli, a mysterious French publisher, offers David a boatload of money to write a very strange book for him. David accepts, and is soon drawn into a strange, bloody mystery.
Readers of “Shadow” will recall Zafón’s fantastic creation, “The Cemetery of Forgotten Books.” It reappears in “The Angel’s Game”:
“This place is a mystery. A sanctuary. Every book, every volume you see has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and the soul of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens. In this place books no longer remembered by anyone, books that are lost in time, live forever, waiting for the day when they will reach a new reader’s hands, a new spirit...”
This story really ends in 1930, but the author chose to tack on a bizarre epilogue set in 1945. I was a bit puzzled by it. Sometimes a writer needs to know when enough is enough.
Zafón has penned a thriller here — it careens across the pages with madcap gusto. Our unlikely hero fights for his life and for the books that he loves. Above all, “The Angel’s Game” pays loving tribute to the power of literature and the magic of words.
Contact book reviewer Vick Mickunas at vick@vickmickunas.com
About the Author