by Robert WeibezahlApril, 2004 Finding echoes of the past in
forgotten books Recent reports indicate that very few foreign
language books are being translated into English. This is mostly
due to economics, but the upshot is that American readers are
missing out on some marvelous books. Fortunately, The Shadow of
the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon is not among the casualties. A
huge success in Ruiz Zafon's native Spain, where it spent more
than a year on bestseller lists, the novel is being published in
more than 20 countries. It arrives on our shores with the full
force of its publisher's promotional machine behind it. Happily,
The Shadow of the Wind lives up to the advance hype. Formidable
in size and scope, it is a literary mystery calculated to appeal
to book lovers because its plot hinges on books. It begins in a
marvelous place called the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a
repository for literary works no longer remembered by anyone. A
10-year-old boy named Daniel is taken there by his bookseller
father to assuag