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Fiction. Suspense. HTML: "A deep and mysterious novel full of people that feel real. . . .An enthralling read and a must-have for your library. Zaf�n focuses on the emotion of the reader and doesn't let go." � Seattle Post-Intelligencer Internationally acclaimed, New York Times bestselling author Carlos Ruiz Zaf�n creates a rich, labyrinthine tale of love, literature, passion, and revenge, set in a dark, gothic Barcelona, in which the heroes of The Shadow of the Wind and The Angel's Game must contend with a nemesis that threatens to destroy them. Barcelona, 1957. It is Christmas, and Daniel Sempere and his wife, Bea, have much to celebrate. They have a beautiful new baby son named Juli�n, and their close friend Ferm�n Romero de Torres is about to be wed. But their joy is eclipsed when a mysterious stranger visits the Sempere bookshop and threatens to divulge a terrible secret that has been buried for two decades in the city's dark past. His appearance plunges Ferm�n and Daniel into a dangerous adventure that will take them back to the 1940s and the early days of Franco's dictatorship. The terrifying events of that time launch them on a search for the truth that will put into peril everything they love, and will ultimately transform their lives..… (more)
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a great ending to the trilogy and it definitely tied up the loose ends from "the angel's game"
This is the third installment in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books series, a series which I adore. All three books are set in Barcelona in the 20th Century
I just ate this one up, 24 hours and the book was done. I loved reading it. As a standalone novel it didn’t take my breath away like Shadow or get inside my brain like The Angel’s Game (TAG), but it is an extension of those books and because of that I love it. It returned me to the city and people I’ve grown attached to and learning more about their world was wonderful. Zafón adds layers and fleshes out the back stories of some of the characters and that’s exactly what I was hoping this novel would do.
This book mainly focuses on Fermín’s history, which was unknown throughout The Shadow of the Wind. It deviates from the style of the first two in a few ways. It’s a shorter and in many ways simpler book. The plot isn’t quote as complicated and it assumes you’ve already been introduced to the characters through the other books. I think that some people are going to dismiss this one because the writing doesn’t have the same eloquence, but I was more than happy with it. It connected some important dots and set up the final book beautifully.
Prisoner is the string that ties everything in the first two novels together. TSTW and TAG can both stand on their own as independent novels. The characters and places occasionally make appearances in the other book, but they do not take over the story. In Prisoner we are reintroduced to the main characters from both books and we learn how their lives are connected and intertwined.
We learn more about David Martín, the main character in The Angel’s Game, and what become of him. We meet Daniel’s mother Isabella, who also appears in TAG. There’s also a slew of new characters introduced in this book: Maurcio Valls, the governor of a prison, Professor Alburquerque, who may one day write secret history of Barcelona and the sinister Sebastian Salgado. Prisoner is also an ode to The Count of Monte Cristo, paying homage to that classic with continuous references.
Unlike the other two novels in the series, this one ends with a bit of a cliffhanger. Nothing awful, it’s just obviously setting up the final book in the series. I didn’t feel like it left me hanging, it just made me excited to read the final book when it is released.
BOTTOM LINE: A great addition to the series. I would highly recommend starting with The Shadow of the Wind; follow it with The Angel’s Game and then The Prisoner of Heaven. All three are wonderful gothic mysteries, and while Shadow remains my favorite, Prisoner fills in many of the missing gaps in the story.
"'I think today will be the day. Today our luck will change,' I proclaimed on the wings of the first coffee of the day, pure optimism in a liquid state."
The Angel's Game was okay, but didn't sing to me like Shadow did--too much gothic
Now I've finished The Prisoner of Heaven. The sadness and loss are still there. The anger and pain are still there. The longing and love for a Barcelona that will never come again is still there. The unshakable faith in the power of the written word is still there. Twisted plots and literary allusions are still there. Beloved characters leading their lives and finding a small measure of happiness are still there. I completely enjoyed all of these things that were there.
What wasn't there was an ending. Sure, there's a stopping point and even an epilogue, but really that only serves to make the story feel unfinished. There's too much of this particular story left untold. Yes, I know that this means there will be another book, and yes, that makes my cold and black little heart leap for joy. But it also means I'll have to wait, and I'm not very good at that.
Still, it's hard to begrudge time spent in the company of Fermin and the Semperes. The story moves quickly, right up until the point where it stops, leaving the reader desperately turning those blank pages at the end of the book hoping to find the continuation. Will I be reading the next installment? Of course--I'm already jonesing for it. But I really hope we get to an actual ending next time (for this story, not for the characters, who I think I could cheerfully read about from now until doomsday).
I read Shadow of the Wind eight years ago, but have only a vague recollection of the plot and characters. I then jumped the second book, The Angel's Game, as I had an opportunity to borrow The Prisoner of Heaven. I don't think this was the best way to read this third
As a 'stand-alone', this was a little sparse. It basically filled in the details of the life of Fermin Romero de Torres, who works in the bookshop, Sempere and Sons, alongside Daniel Sempere and his father.
Fermin's narration of his past is prompted by the arrival of a mysterious stranger, who threatens to reveal all and disrupt the new life that Fermin has woven for himself. Inevitably, this tale has far reaching implications for those around him, which will, no doubt, be carried on into the final installment.
Hovering around this story is the impending marriage of Fermin to Bernarda, which is not legally possible, as Fermin does not have the necessary identity papers.
The 'Prisoner of Heaven' of the title, only makes the briefest of appearances.
I only gave The Shadow of the Wind three stars, so I doubt I shall go back and re-read it, though my curiosity has been roused by this recent read. I have The Angel's Game on my shelves and I must read that before The Prisoner of Heaven also becomes just a vague memory :)
In this novel, the action begins in 1957 in Barcelona at Christmas time. The main character, Fermin Romero de Torres is working in a bookstore owned by Senor Sempere and his son Daniel. Fermin, who is about to be married, leaves the bookstore one day to take care of marriage preparations. A mysterious crippled man painfully enters the store and buys an expensive copy of The Count of Monte Cristo. He inscribes a note in the novel and asks Daniel to deliver it to the person named in the note. After he leaves, Daniel reads the inscription and sees that the name is that of his friend, employee, and local bon vivant Fermin. It seems to Daniel that there is more to Fermin than meets the eye.
The story moves back in time to 1939 to a location of a notoriously bad prison on Montjuic, a hill in Barcelona. Because of his anti-government activity, Fermin has been sentenced to an indeterminate sentence in the hellish institution where brutality and torture are daily occurrences. Fermin is thrown into cell 13. The narrative focuses on Fermin's life in the jail and the fellow prisoners he meets. A particularly interesting inmate is David Martin, a writer imprisoned for expressing supposed anti-government sentiments. He is being blackmailed to ghost-write material for the warden, Mauricio Valls, who claims the productions as his own creative work. Martin's bizarre ranting behavior has earned him the nickname of "the Prisoner of Heaven," but there is a method to Martin's madness.
The story unfolds with many twists and turns, friendships and betrayals, sacrifices and expressions of love. The resolution of the mystery surrounding the bookstore visitor is revealed to Daniel as the novel progresses from 1939 forward to 1957. This is an excellent novel that seemed to me flawlessly translated from the Spanish by Lucia Graves. I enjoyed every page of the The Prisoner of Heaven and will now go back and read the first two novels in the literary universe Zafon has created.
I recommend Zafon’s books but would suggest that the readers begin with “The Shadow of the Wind” and continue to follow the books as they develop. Zafon’s novels have been translated into 50 different languages and it is easy to understand why this has been done. A wonderful YA book.
I enjoyed the story linking
The Prisoner of Heaven is certainly a good read, better by far than Angel’s Game, but not quite as enchanting as The Shadow of the Wind. In The Prisoner, we return to Daniel Sempere and Fermín, who made their first appearance in the first of Zafón’s intriguing novels. David Martín also makes an appearance and the events of both previous novels are frequently referenced, though you don’t necessarily need to have read them to keep up with this book. Daniel Sempere has been married for two years now, and Fermín is on the verge of marriage. Fermín has some unresolved issues, however, and his past comes a-callin’ one winter evening. Alexander Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo plays a significant role in the novel and provides much of Fermín’s backstory, which is mainly what The Prisoner gives us. I don’t like to give things away, so I won’t. The background for Fernín’s story is WWII Barcelona and the red scare. Much of the backstory takes place in a famous castle prison full of nutters, one of whom we’ve already met. The main villain of the novel is Governor Mauricio Valls, a man tied to all of the main characters in The Prisoner, but who remains continually out of reach. The Valls enigma becomes central to Daniel, but that unravelling will have to wait for the next book.
This book is a quick read, and nowhere near as complex as either of the other two novels, though better written than one. After Angel’s Game, I was ready to give up on Zafón, but now I might have to stick around for a bit. There was some cheeky meta-stuff happening here (Daniel telling another character to write a secret history of Barcelona and Julian Carax, a significant character in the first novel; a manuscript titled The Angel’s Game appears, etc.), but I really just wish that the book jackets would stop promising to deliver on the Cemetery of Forgotten Books if the novel is only going to include maybe a scene or two of it, especially when those scenes are not central to the plot. Final verdict: this is an excellent book for a late summer beach read (though try not to get sand in the plastic library covers, like I did).
This is the third in the connected stories in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books cycle. While it's not
That said, I could have done with a bit more bookshop/Cemetery of Forgotten Books in this volume!
I was drawn to the story by the promise of a bit of historical novel, a bit of a love story and the hint of mystery. It delivered on all fronts. It's a very hard book to try and describe as it is quite unlike anything I've read before. It is a dark gem full of rich characters of both good and evil and it uses my favorite novel, The Count of Monte Cristo as a reference and a reverence.
Mr. Zafon creates a dark world for war torn Barcelona in 1939. Fermin Romero de Tores is swept up into prison for reasons never fully explained (one of those questions I mentioned above) and he meets famous author David Martin who helps him to escape with the promise that he will look after his friend Isabella and her child.
In present day Barcelona (1957 in the book) Fermin and Daniel, Isabella's child are best friends and the book details how that came to be through Fermin's confession to Daniel when the past rises and threatens the peace of the present.
It's a horrifying and well written tale and it is not over...another book is alluded to and I will look forward to it. The writing is exceptional; Mr. Zafon's pen sets a mood whether dark or light with words that dance on the page. He draws you into the dank, smelly prison where Fermin suffers and he celebrates the beauty of a sunset just as effectively. He is a seductive writer no matter the subject. I will most certainly seek out more of his work and keep this one in my library.
I just love this man’s writing he can transport you into a story so fast that it was so hard to let go. There were a couple times I wanted to shake Daniel (when it came to his wife). I enjoyed Fermin’s story and liked how it unfolded. This one didn’t have as much suspense to it just because it pulled in the stories from the first 2 books and it was more ah-ha moments of how everyone & everything fit together.
This didn’t feel like an ending of this series though so I hope there is another one! Although it was like the end of a chapter I would love more stories from these characters. Also this one seemed to be over quickly and left me wanting more.
Peter Kenny narrated this installment and I thought he did a very good job, I do wish Jonathan Davis would have narrated the entire series but each book has a different narrator and I liked Peter better than I liked Dan Stevens who narrated Angel’s Game but still not as much as Jonathan Davis.
This is a great series and this was a short but satisfying addition.
4 Stars
Fermin's story is the vehicle by which Ruiz Zafon ties the two segments together. I must say the story is quite worthy of it's own book. Ruiz Zafon's skills at stirring the emotions and conjuring Barcelona of the early Franco years are masterful and does transport us to that long ago place. It brings to the surface all of our romantic notions of what it was like to live in Spain at that time. And Fermin's story, is quite spell binding, although not really strong enough to stand on a massive tome of his own. So this thinner book is a perfect vehicle. yet I do feel somewhat cheated because I was awaiting a rollicking romp much like the first book. the Angel Game was less favored by myself due to the phantasmagorical turns it took.
Ruiz Zafon could have continued with the story beyond just telling the story of Fermin. he could have gone on to tell the story that he really wants to tell: the continuing saga; instead, he teases us coyly and gets our hopes up for the next installment of the further adventures into the Cemetery of Forgotten books. All I can say is, this title has somewhat forestalled my hunger, much like a nice set of tapas, but I am still hungry for the main course, and it had better be good.
Fermin Romero de Torres was my favorite character in The
Daniel Sempere is all grown up now, married, and the father of a little boy. One day a creepy stranger enters Sempere and Sons bookshop and leaves a cryptic note for Fermin. Daniel is both curious and worried for Fermin's safety, so Fermin begins to tell him the story of his years as a prisoner in Montjuic Castle.
If you loved Fermin and his salacious one-liners, you're in for a treat. You'll also love the way Zafon ties in characters and events from both TSOTW and The Angel's Game. We revisit Beatriz, Bernarda, Daniel Martin, and the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. We even get to learn a little more about Daniel Sempere's mother, Isabella, who died when Daniel was small.
I loved the sweet and subtle way the book ends. Loved it. It's a perfect completion of the circle begun with the opening of The Shadow of the Wind.
As ever, I'm grateful to translator Lucia Graves for making these stories available to us in English.
Once again the action is set in Barcelona though it is now the late 1950s. Daniel Sempere has been married to the lovely Beatriz for a couple of years and they have a baby son Julian, named for the