The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Prisoner of Heaven
by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
(Audio)
Zafon has never done me wrong. All right, I didn't overwhelmingly adore The Angel's Game, but that was because it felt like a weaker version of The Shadow of the Wind, which I ADORED as one of my favorite books ever. And I still liked The Angel's Game and the ability to dive right back into the streets of Barcelona with the wonder characters I knew and loved. This is the third book that involve those characters. It picks up quite some time after The Shadow of the Wind and involves a lot of the same characters. However, it also ties in a lot of elements from The Angel's Game, so it feels like a good culmination of both books.
The story centers around Daniel (oh, Daniel, how I missed you!) as he learns some important things about our favorite bookshop helper with the name of a former bullfighter, Fermin Romero de Torres. It was thrilling to hear Fermin's account of his past. And fascinating to realize why he ended up where he did. What an amazing turn of events that caused these heroes to all find each other.
Parts of Fermin's tale were hard to take. Some made me worried. Some made me laugh. But all of them made my heart go out to him--and to Daniel, whose own past is significantly colored by what Fermin tells him. Daniel starts to question himself, his wife, his father, and even his dead mother.
But just as the truth could shatter his world, something beautiful and amazing happens to set it straight.
It was wonderful seeing these characters again. It's been years since I read The Shadow of the Wind, and this book brought back all the magic and love for the characters I had then. it was a pleasure to get to see more of them. And while I don't think this book was quite as beautifully written (either in prose or in translation) it was still lovely and enjoyable. It was also great to earread this, because of the accents.