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The Angel’s Game, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Doubleday, 2009
The Angel’s Game is set in the same gothic Barcelona that The Shadow of the Wind is, but earlier in time. A couple of the characters from Shadow are in this book. But this Barcelona is even darker than that of Shadow; where Daniel Sempere had his father and a few friends he could trust, David Martin, orphaned as a boy, has no one.
David hopes to be a writer. He gets his chance, and his writing is good, but he is not making much money and is a virtual slave to the publishers who hold his contract. When the mysterious publisher Andreas Corelli asks him to write a book for a huge sum, David accepts. The book is to be unlike any other- it’s to help create a new religion. And then people start dying around David. Soon David finds himself in a Kafka-esque situation, beset on all sides, with no one being who or what they seem to be. You keep thinking things couldn’t get any worse for this character, and then it does. David Martin’s world is grim and ugly and bloody.
But despite it’s darkness, this is a very compelling book. One can’t wait to see what happens to this man next. There are a couple of characters who, despite being flawed, shine like beacons, lightening the mix. The complexity of the plot takes full concentration. I eagerly wait for Zafon’s next installment in his Barcelona series.
The Angel’s Game is set in the same gothic Barcelona that The Shadow of the Wind is, but earlier in time. A couple of the characters from Shadow are in this book. But this Barcelona is even darker than that of Shadow; where Daniel Sempere had his father and a few friends he could trust, David Martin, orphaned as a boy, has no one.
David hopes to be a writer. He gets his chance, and his writing is good, but he is not making much money and is a virtual slave to the publishers who hold his contract. When the mysterious publisher Andreas Corelli asks him to write a book for a huge sum, David accepts. The book is to be unlike any other- it’s to help create a new religion. And then people start dying around David. Soon David finds himself in a Kafka-esque situation, beset on all sides, with no one being who or what they seem to be. You keep thinking things couldn’t get any worse for this character, and then it does. David Martin’s world is grim and ugly and bloody.
But despite it’s darkness, this is a very compelling book. One can’t wait to see what happens to this man next. There are a couple of characters who, despite being flawed, shine like beacons, lightening the mix. The complexity of the plot takes full concentration. I eagerly wait for Zafon’s next installment in his Barcelona series.