The Shadow of the Wind

Daniel hosts a birthday party on his 16th birthday; he has invited Clara, Don Barceló, and Bernarda, though his relationship with Clara has become strained. Daniel’s father prepares a feast and purchases the best cake he can find. He puts on his best suit and presents Daniel with a gift. Daniel, angry and embarrassed that only Bernarda shows up for his party, slams the door to the apartment as he runs away, completely humiliated.

Daniel walks down to the docks, where he has taken pleasure cruises with his father in the past. Completely absorbed in his thoughts, he is startled when a stranger speaks to him from the shadows. This man, smoking a cigarette, is the same man that Daniel saw outside his window, and who Daniel now realizes also followed and accosted Clara. Frightened of the man but also determined, he spurns the man’s attempts to buy The Shadow of the Wind. The man smells of burnt paper.

Using the light of a match, the man reveals his burned, scarred face and declares his intention to burn The Shadow of the Wind whenever he does find it.

A storm begins to brew as the stranger walks away. Daniel’s only thoughts are that he has placed Clara in danger by giving her his copy of The Shadow of the Wind. He rushes to the Barcelós’ apartment and lets himself in with the keys given to him by Don Barceló in friendlier days. He finds the book and decides to leave without letting Clara know he is there, but he hears voices and laughter coming from Clara’s room. He approaches her bedroom door.

Clara and the musician Neri are making love in her bed. Stunned, Daniel watches them until Neri sees him. Neri beats him up, threatens him with another beating if he does not stay away from Clara, and takes Daniel’s keys. Bruised, bloody, and sick to his stomach, Daniel creeps away with The Shadow of the Wind.

Outside the building, a beggar approaches Daniel, asking if he is all right. The man, wearing a worn and filthy gray suit, introduces himself as Fermín Romero de Torres, ex-secret service agent. Daniel assumes the man is mad. Fermín shares his wine with Daniel.

Daniel returns The Shadow of the Wind to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, six years after he first entered. It smells like death, and he remembers that the doorknocker is a demon’s head. Isaac, the library’s caretaker, lets Daniel in and tells him that he will tell Daniel what he knows about Julián Carax, while Daniel warms and dries himself in his office.

Daniel learns new information about Julián Carax from Isaac. Julián’s mother was a French music teacher, and Carax lived in Paris from about age nineteen or 20. Isaac was friends with the publisher of Carax’s novels, Tony Cabestany. Between 1928 and 1936, Cabestany published eight of Carax’s novels, even though the most successful novel sold only about ninety copies. When Cabestany died, his sons took over the business. A man calling himself Laín Coubert offers three times the market value for all of Julián Carax’s remaining stock of novels. The son asks for more than Coubert was offering, and Coubert withdraws his offer. Later that night, the building containing the remaining publishers’ stock burns to the ground.

All but a single copy of each Carax novel are lost. Nuria Monfort, Isaac’s daughter, worked for Cabestany as his secretary. Acting on her intuition, she removed a copy of each novel from the publisher’s office. She brought them to her father at the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, where Daniel found The Shadow of the Wind so many years later.

Nuria hid the books in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, saying that when she found Julián Carax she would return for the books. To the current date, she has not found Carax nor returned for the hidden books. Though father and daughter are estranged, with Isaac hinting that Nuria—beautiful and mysterious—has broken his heart, Isaac tells Daniel that his fatherly intuition was that Nuria, who travelled on publishing business to Paris, met and fell in love with Julián Carax. Currently married to Miquel Moliner, a journalist, Nuria now works as an Italian and French translator. Daniel wants to talk to Nuria to get more information on Julián Carax, so Isaac gives him her address.

Daniel hides The Shadow of the Wind in the library, marking his way through the labyrinth so that he can find the book later.

Daniel returns home, where his father is waiting up for him. His father asks him to open his present. It is the magnificent fountain pen, with Daniel’s name and the date, 1950, on the gold clip. Father and son hug one another, once again in harmony with one another.