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Book Review of The Shadow of the Wind

The Shadow of the Wind
sharrona avatar reviewed on + 207 more book reviews


This book is a real challenge. I first heard of it on a book critic's list of "10 best books of the century," and since I'd read the other nine and agreed they were great, I had to try this one. I'm always cautious about criticizing a book that I've read in a language other than the original: who gets the credit/blame -- the author, or the translator?

In any case, in every hundred pages of text there are (generously speaking) about ten pages of plot, and maybe one page of character development. At the end I'm prepared to say "What a neat story!" but the key word is STORY, as in "short story" rather than "lengthy novel."