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The Angel’s GameIntroduction of the ebook: The Angel’s Game
Đánh giá : 3.96 /5 (sao)
From master storyteller Carlos Ruiz Zafon, author of the international phenomenon The Shadow of the Wind, comes The Angel’s Game — a dazzling new page-turner about the perilous nature of obsession, in literature and in love.
The whole of Barcelona stretched out at my feet and I wanted to believe that when I opened those windows — my new windows — each evening its streets wo From master storyteller Carlos Ruiz Zafon, author of the international phenomenon The Shadow of the Wind, comes The Angel’s Game — a dazzling new page-turner about the perilous nature of obsession, in literature and in love.
The whole of Barcelona stretched out at my feet and I wanted to believe that when I opened those windows — my new windows — each evening its streets would whisper stories to me, secrets in my ear, that I could catch on paper and narrate to whomever cared to listen…
In an abandoned mansion at the heart of Barcelona, a young man, David Martin, makes his living by writing sensationalist novels under a pseudonym. The survivor of a troubled childhood, he has taken refuge in the world of books and spends his nights spinning baroque tales about the city’s underworld. But perhaps his dark imaginings are not as strange as they seem, for in a locked room deep within the house lie photographs and letters hinting at the mysterious death of the previous owner.
Like a slow poison, the history of the place seeps into his bones as he struggles with an impossible love. Close to despair, David receives a letter from a reclusive French editor, Andreas Corelli, who makes him the offer of a lifetime. He is to write a book unlike anything that has ever existed — a book with the power to change hearts and minds. In return, he will receive a fortune, and perhaps more. But as David begins the work, he realizes that there is a connection between his haunting book and the shadows that surround his home.
Once again, Zafon takes us into a dark, gothic universe first seen in The Shadow of the Wind and creates a breathtaking adventure of intrigue, romance, and tragedy. Through a dizzyingly constructed labyrinth of secrets, the magic of books, passion, and friendship blend into a masterful story.
(jacket) …more
Review ebook The Angel’s Game
David Martín is a writer of penny dreadfuls who is offered a huge sum of money to write a book for a French publisher. He can’t find any evidence that the publisher actually exists though, and violent things start happening to David’s friends and colleagues.
I was rocking through the first half of the book, loving Ruiz Zafón’s writing, and then I just stopped caring a little over halfway through. I’m not entirely sure what happened. I think I got sick of having absolutely no freaking idea what wa David Martín is a writer of penny dreadfuls who is offered a huge sum of money to write a book for a French publisher. He can’t find any evidence that the publisher actually exists though, and violent things start happening to David’s friends and colleagues.
I was rocking through the first half of the book, loving Ruiz Zafón’s writing, and then I just stopped caring a little over halfway through. I’m not entirely sure what happened. I think I got sick of having absolutely no freaking idea what was going on. Yeah, I knew who the publisher was, but I didn’t know how that was going to tie into everything else. I read this using this really cool post-it-flag bookmark my husband gave me, because I knew that I would probably have tons of quotes I loved in here. The last one is at page 324 out of 531 pages. There’s no big event that I can find there, I think that’s just where I ran out of patience.
I loved Ruiz Zafón’s previous book, The Shadow of the Wind , and I have a feeling that a re-read would bump that one up to five stars. I missed having a Fermín. There wasn’t really anyone to give any lightness or grace to the story. It was all darkness and despair. The relationship between David and Isabella gave a few lighter moments, but he ended up hurting her feelings more often than not, so those were pretty limited. This is sort of a companion to Shadow, and I had a hard time figuring out how and when they fit together. I was confused about how this Sempere was consistently described as being shy and sort of boring, when that wasn’t the guy I knew from Shadow. This young Sempere is the father in Shadow.
I have to say, my hat is off to the translator, Lucia Graves. She did one heckuva job translating this. The story might have lost me a little, but the writing is still lyrical, and that has to be as much to her credit as to the author’s.
Maybe I should have put this aside and tried it again later when I realized that I had started to lose interest. I don’t think that would have made a difference though. It’s still a dark, Gothic novel that fans of that genre will still probably love. I just preferred The Shadow of the Wind much, much more. …more
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