The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Discussion Questions

  1. What does the Cemetery of Lost Books represent? Does it change throughout the course of the narrative? What is Isaac Monfort’s role as keeper/guardian of the Cemetery?
  2. Julián Carax’s and Daniel’s lives follow very similar trajectories, yet one ends in tragedy, the other in happiness. What similarities are there between the paths they take? What are the differences that allow Daniel to avoid tragedy?What is the relationship between Daniel and Julián Carax?
  3. Nuria Monfort tells Daniel, “Julián once wrote that coincidences are the scars of fate. There are no coincidences, Daniel. We are the puppets of our unconscious.” What does that mean? What does she refer to in her own experience and in Julián’s life?
  4. Nuria’s dying words, meant for Julián, are, “There are worse prisons than words.” What does she mean by this? To what is she referring?
  5. There are many devil figures in the story: Laín Coubert, Inspector Fumero, Zacarias (Jacinta’s dream angel). Are there others? How does evil manifest itself in each devil figure? What are the characteristics of the villains/devils?
  6. Zafón’s female characters are often enigmatic, otherworldly angels full of power and mystery. Clara, first idealized by Daniel, ultimately becomes a fallen angel; Carax credits Beatriz with saving his and Daniel’s lives; Daniel’s mother is an angel whose death renders her so ephemeral that Daniel can’t remember her face. Are there other female angel figures in the book? Does Zafón paint his female characters differently than his male characters? What do the women in Daniel’s liferepresent? What might the Freud-loving Miquel Moliner say about Daniel’s relationships with women?
  7. While many characters appear to be mainly evil or good, some fall in between. Who are these characters and what prompts them to act as they do? Who are the true villains and heroes of the novel?
  8. Daniel says of Julián Carax’s novel The Shadow of the Wind, “As it unfolded, the structure of the story began to remind me of one of those Russian dolls that contain innumerable ever-smaller dolls within.” Zafón’s The Shadow of the Wind unfolds much the same way, with many characters contributing fragments of their own stories in the first person point of view. What does Zafón illustrate with this method of storytelling? What do the individual mini-autobiographies contribute to the tale?
  9. Fumero is the only son of a ridiculed father and a superficial, status-seeking mother. The troubled Julián is the illegitimate son of a love-starved musical mother and an amorous, amoral businessman, though he was raised by the hatmaker Antoni Fortuny. Are their personalities products of nature or nurture? How are the sins of the fathers and mothers visited upon each of the characters?
  10. How is the relationship between father and child described in the book? Think of Daniel and his father, Antoni Fortuny and Julián, Ricardo Aldaya and Jorge and Penélope, Isaac and Nuria Monfort, and Gustavo Barceló and his niece Clara. Which of them are good fathers? Why do they each behave towards their children as they do?
  11. Howdoes the setting of The Shadow of the Wind in Barcelona’s Barri Gotic (Gothic Quarter) in the midst of the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath affect the story? In what ways did the setting enhance the book?
  12. What roles does Fermín Romero de Torres play in the action?How does his friendship with Daniel compare to Tomás Aguilar’s?
  13. The Aldaya mansion, the allegedly cursed Angel of the Mist, seems to be a character in its own right. It has a life of its own, creaking, moaning, and breathing fire in its belly. How does the abandoned house influence the book and its characters?
  14. “Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you,” Julián tells Jorge Aldaya upon meeting him. Is this statement true? What is Ruiz Zafón trying to say about books in this instance and elsewhere in the novel?
  15. What does the Montblanc Meinsterstuck fountain pen that Daniel receives on his 16th birthday symbolize? Is it significant that it supposedly belonged to Victor Hugo, a celebrated author whose life had a fair amount of tragedy?
  16. Julián never finds out why his relationship with Penélope was so taboo. To the end, everyone (except Fumero) wanted to protect him from the real facts. What would have happened to Julian if he learned the secret of his relation to the love of his life?
  17. What is “the shadow of the wind”? Where does Zafón refer to it and what does he use the image to illustrate?

There is a soundtrack for The Shadow of the Wind, composed by Zafón, available to downloadfree for personal use at

About the author

Carlos Ruiz Zafón was born on September 25, 1964 in Barcelona, Spain and grew up under the shadow of Gaudí's Sagrada Familia cathedral, just a block away from the family home. At 13, he wrote a 600-page science fiction novel; it was never published. After studying with the Jesuits of Sarria and attending university, he became an advertising writer. His first published books were young adult novels: El Príncipe de la Niebla(The Prince of Shadow, 1993, winner of the Primero Edebe prize),El Palacio de la Medianoche(The Midnight Palace, 1994), Las Luces de Septiembre(The Lights of September, 1995), and Marina (1999).

La Sombra del Viento(The Shadow of the Wind) was published in 2001 in Spain and in English in 2004 and was an international bestseller. Among the book’s prizes, it won a Borders Original Voices Award, a Gumshoe Award, a Barry Award, the Joseph-Beth and Davis-Kidd Booksellers Fiction Award, and was a nominee for a Horror Guild Award.His other novels areEl Juego del Angel(The Angel's Game, 2008, a prequel to The Shadow of the Wind) and El Prisionero del Cielo (The Prisoner of Heaven, 2011), the third book in the cycle.Hisworks have been published in 45 countries and have been translated into more than 50 different languages.

In 1994, Ruiz Zafón moved to Los Angeles and began working as a scriptwriter. He splits his time between L.A. and Barcelona and also writes for the Spanish daily papers El País and La Vanguardia. He has also worked as a composer and musician and cites Charles Dickens as a literary influence.