The Labyrinth of the Spirits is the conclusion to the four-volume cycle entitled The Cemetery of Forgotten Books. Each of the four novels serves as both an independent narrative and a point of entry into the lives of a gallery of characters, chief among them the Sempere family, booksellers eking out a living in the ravaged, war-torn city of Barcelona. Taken together, these four volumes form a secret history of Barcelona, one dominated and symbolized by the eponymous Cemetery. That history is set against the larger history of a city—and country—torn by civil war and the regime of Francisco Franco.

The Labyrinth of the Spirits generates its own central narrative while echoing and amplifying themes and storylines from the earlier books. The narrative begins with a single event: the disappearance of Minister of Culture Mauricio Valls. When Alicia Gris begins to investigate, she uncovers a series of plots involving retribution, mass murder, and the serial kidnapping of newly orphaned children.

On another level, these four books offer a defense of the power of the imagination. Horrors abound in this fictional universe, but so do their counterparts: love, friendship, family, ideas and, most centrally, stories. The Labyrinth of the Spirits is the culmination of a celebration of books, writers, and the life of the mind.