The Angel's Game
by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
In 2004, Carlos Ruiz Zafon made a spectacular English language debut with The Shadow of the Wind, a brilliantly constructed novel set in Barcelona in the aftermath of World War II. Its central symbol and most indelible image was an intricate Borgesian labyrinth called The Cemetery of Forgotten Books. Zafon’s latest, The Angel’s Game, is also set in Barcelona and also revisits the mysterious Cemetery. It is, however, neither a sequel nor a prequel, but an independent narrative that elaborates a coherent, increasingly complex fictional universe.
Zafon’s narrator/hero is David Martin, an orphan brought up in true Dickensian squalor. After years of struggle, he achieves success writing a popular series of “penny dreadfuls” called City of the Damned. In time, his work comes to the attention of Andreas Corelli, a Parisian publisher with a truly Faustian proposition. Corelli offers David 100,00 francs if he will use his narrative gifts to create a viable new religion.
The extraordinary tale that follows is many things at once: mystery, love story, supernatural thriller, historical drama, gothic romance, and meditation on the primal importance of stories, of narrative itself. As the author reminds us throughout this novel, books have souls, and reflect the souls of both their readers and their writers. The Angel’s Game beautifully illustrates this proposition, and offers further proof that Carlos Ruiz Zafon is one of the most compelling—and unpredictable—storytellers of the modern era.
2 editions available
Editions
In 2004, Carlos Ruiz Zafon made a spectacular English language debut with The Shadow of the Wind, a brilliantly constructed novel set in Barcelona in the aftermath of World War II. Its central symbol and most indelible image was an intricate Borgesian labyrinth called The Cemetery of Forgotten Books. Zafon’s latest, The Angel’s Game, is also set in Barcelona and also revisits the mysterious Cemetery. It is, however, neither a sequel nor a prequel, but an independent narrative that elaborates a coherent, increasingly complex fictional universe. Zafon’s narrator/hero is David Martin, an orphan brought up in true Dickensian squalor. After years of struggle, he achieves success writing a popular series of “penny dreadfuls” called City of the Damned. In time, his work comes to the attention of Andreas Corelli, a Parisian publisher with a truly Faustian proposition. Corelli offers David 100,00 francs if he will use his narrative gifts to create a viable new religion. The extraordinary tale that follows is many things at once: mystery, love story, supernatural thriller, historical drama, gothic romance, and meditation on the primal importance of stories, of narrative itself. As the author reminds us throughout this novel, books have souls, and reflect the souls of both their readers and their writers. The Angel’s Game beautifully illustrates this proposition, and offers further proof that Carlos Ruiz Zafon is one of the most compelling—and unpredictable—storytellers of the modern era.