The Cemetery of Forgotten Books #3 The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (tr. Lucia Graves) 3.75/5 Award: Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Historical Fiction (2012) Version française: Le prisonnier du ciel Synopsis Barcelona, 1957. It is Christmas, and Daniel Sempere and his wife Bea have much to celebrate. They have a beautiful new baby son named Julian, and their close friend Fermín 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 Fermín and Daniel into a dangerous adventure that will take them back to the 1940s and the dark early days of Franco's dictatorship. The terrifying events of that time launch them on a journey fraught with jealousy, suspicion, vengeance, and lies, a search for the truth that will put into peril everything they love and ultimately transform their lives. My thoughts It makes me profoundly sad to think that Carlos Ruiz Zafón will never publish another book. Indeed, Zafón passed away this summer of cancer. Since I read Marina a lifetime ago, I have marvelled over his writing style and the worlds he created. He remains to this day one of my favourite authors. Reading The Prisoner of Heaven after the news was an odd feeling. To know that I now have only a few books left to read by one of my favourite authors definitely made me appreciate the reading experience more. That being said, TPoH is by far the least complex thus far of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books series. It is also much shorter. If you compare the book to, for example, The Shadow of the Wind, you will most likely be disappointed. There are fewer plot twists and less character growth. However, it is still nail-bitingly suspenseful. Zafón cleverness as he constructs plots never ceases to amaze me. While TPoH has fewer details than its predecessors, it is still effective and precise. Reading one of Zafón’s books always feels like those scenes in shows where n obsessed detective is tying red ropes over a map on his bulletin board, with yellow post-its and black and white photographs pinned. You never see the full picture until the end and, even then, it takes a few more moments to bring all the information together. While TPoH lacks some of the intricacies Zafón has accustomed us to, it remains a beautifully written (and translated) piece of historical fiction/murder mystery/badass story. As I have said about The Angel’s Game, you do not absolutely need to have read The Shadow of the Wind and, in this case, TAG as well, to understand TPoH. However, the main character of TPoH is Fermín Romero de Torres, who is prominently featured in other books. Almost all the other characters from the franchise thus far, including Daniel Sempere, Mauricio Valls, Bea and others, also play a significant role. While you might not lose anything if you do not read the rest of the series first, you certainly gain a better understanding of the characters if you do. Since the first book, Fermín has always been one of my favourites. He has always been a fun, strange man, so seeing his origin story in TPoH gave me an even better appreciation for him. It was time that he got what he deserved!
Overall, TPoH was a shorty, but still packed a punch. It may not be at the same level as Zafón’s other books, but it was a pleasant interlude where we got to see more of the people we love and love to hate. Now, onto The Labyrinth of Spirits!
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