I was 21 years old when I attended my Erasmus year in Càceres, a beautiful city in the region of Extremadura in Spain, a Unesco Heritage beautiful place. I was learning Spanish language and literature and one of the writers who became famous that year, 2001, was Carlos Ruìz Zafòn with the adventure book “The shadow of the wind”. I went straight to the first library and bought in Spanish and my adventure in the world of “abandoned” books with Daniel, the young protagonist, started.
I was fascinated by the old times in Barcelona described as a “story into the story” in the book. I really wanted to improve my Spanish by reading a contemporary book in the original language. The plot is compelling, complicated, it goes through the time and the writer has been able to create the same mystery of a crime story, but at the same time, leave the atmosphere of an adventure book which can be for everyone: youngsters, adults, educators.
One day in November 2022, I went back to visit my parents in the North of Italy and my niece Alessia, who became, for my joy and true happiness, a “Reader Book Lover”, like me always surrounded and curious to read new books, at. my usual question” what book are you reading at the moment?”, answered “The shadow of the wind”, a Spanish book, do you know it aunt? “Of course!!!!. It’s a book which signed the upgrade of my Spanish language a long time ago in Spain, it made me company on buses, in my afternoons after lessons and I almost met the writer one day in Girona, when I worked as a waiter on the coast near Barcelona during the summertime. As a student I needed to find a way to survive and I wanted to stay in Spain at that time, building my life there. I loved that book but I guess I couldn’t make a summary now… I almost forgot all the plot…”. “Well, I miss 80 pages to be read and we can create our 3rd book trailer, what do you think?”. “Cool, here I am. I will wait for you!”. and we did it!
Carlos Ruiz Zafón unfortunately died in 2020 with 55 years after a long disease. He was in Los Angeles working as a movie writer. His editor remembers him as a friend and one of the best Spanish novelists in the story. He could finish the quadrilogy started with “The Shadow of the Wind” and it’s sad to have lost him. My niece doesn’t know he died. She’s a passionate reader but also a busy student at the scientific lyceum. She doesn’t go and search for more information. At the moment she’s reading what she finds in the libraries in the houses where she spent her time, in this case, her grandmother’s house. She won’t probably read the other books of the same author because she’s forming herselves reading randomly.
and so we did it! We co-created our 3rd book trailer after “To kill a mockingbird” and “The rule of four”.
Enjoy watching “The Shadow of the Wind” and tell us what do you think!
Author: Erika Gerardini, JUMP Team
