Book notes No. 33 : The Angel's Game, Carlos Ruiz Zafón

In the gothic tower of an abandoned Barcelona mansion, David Martín eeks out a living writing trash novels for a barracuda publisher, surrounded by mystery and shadows. At the moment of his darkest despair, he receives a letter from a foreign publisher with a surprising and vaguely sinister proposition. He is to write a book. A special book. A book to win the hearts and minds of millions. Tempted by the promise of wealth, health and much more, Martín begins to write, and in doing so finds himself embroiled in mysterious events that threaten his sanity and his life.


Anyone who has read Carlos Ruiz Zafón's previous novel, The Shadow of the Wind, will recognise in this book many of the characters and characteristics that made the former so compelling. Here is an atmospheric Barcelona, tortured and twisted in the period just before the second world war. Here is the monumental and monstrous Cemetery of Forgotten Books. Here is the Sempere family, dispensing wisdom from their little bookshop. Again the book is a combination of detective thriller and horror story, which slips seamlessly into magical realism and later becomes a heartbreaking love story. 


Under the surface of this magnificently plotted and masterfully paced novel also lies a meditation on the nature of religion and its relationship to literature. In a central conversation with the mysterious and seemingly diabolical publisher, we read : 


"...a religion is really a moral code that is expressed through legends, myths or any type of literary device in order to establish a system of beliefs, values and rules with which to regulate a culture or society...Everything is a tale, Martín. What we believe, what we know, what we remember, even what we dream. Everything is a story, a narrative, a sequence of events with characters communicating an emotional content. We only accept as true what can be narrated..."


And Martín's own narrative is to lead him to the brink. 


Highly recommended.