The enamouring story of The Cemetery
of Forgotten Books concludes with The Labyrinth of the
Spirits, this is the
fourth installment in the series. I was dying to read this grand
finale and the wait was excruciating, especially since the
translation from Spanish into English took two years. The day the
bookseller delivered the book to my doorstep I thought it was a trick.
I opened the parcel and found a big book wrapped in a dust jacket as
beautiful as it is inviting, it was almost as if the book was
whispering into my ears: "Shall we begin"?
Synopsis:
In 1938, the Spanish Civil War took
Alicia's parents from her and gave her an injury for life. Alicia was
only nine years old. Twenty years later Alicia grew up to become a top
investigator for Spain's secret police. Despite being good at her
job, Alicia was weary and she wished to retire. Her boss, Leandro
Montalvo, granted her retirement on one condition – she must solve the case about the strange disappearance of Spain's Minister of
Culture, a man called Mauricio Valls.
Alicia travelled from Madrid to
Barcelona with her partner, a big and experienced cop called Juan
Manuel Vargras, to investigate this case. Their investigations
uncovered a piece of bizarre but vital clue, a book called The
Labyrinths of the Spirits, written by one Victor Mataix. The duo
followed the clue and unearthed a terrifying secret tied to the
Franco regime which also involved David Martin, Julian Carax, and the
Sempere family.
My thoughts on this book:
The Labyrinth of the Spirits is
a massive tome of 800 pages, but it reads like a piece of crime
detective noir, fast-paced and thrilling. The book has numerous plots
and sub-plots, but they are all connected to the central mystery,
which was revealed one layer at a time like peeling off the onion
skins. This is an intricate and beautiful story, you will want to
loose yourself in this book and explore every corner of it. I was
especially shocked and moved by the descriptions of life in Franco's
regime. I mean, I have lived in the western world for the most of my
life, and while in the western society there are a lot emphasis and
stories about how communist states oppressed the life of its
citizens, but there aren't many stories and emphasis about how the
fascist regimes can be equally as oppressive. I wonder why? Perhaps it
is because the West has made communism its only enemy so fascism is
deemed more tolerable? But surely totalitarianism can go under any
slogan, right? Anyway, I digress.
The book introduces a new protagonist,
Alicia Gris, a femme fatale who wrestled with a wound she sustained
from the Spanish Civil War, when she was still a little girl.
Alicia's wound is both physical and emotional, and the book did an
excellent job at translating how her wound shaped her into the person
she was. I like Alicia, she and Fermin are my favorite characters in
the series. Where Fermin has a good humour and roguish charms, Alicia
is mysterious, seductive, but also subject to sympathy.
A host of characters appeared in this
book alongside Alicia. Some characters, such as detective Vargras
and Leandro, are new characters. These new characters are well
fleshed out, I especially like Vargras, who is like a rugged bear,
and his relationship dynamic to Alicia, one that bears resemblance to
a father and and his daughter, was vividly portrayed. Meanwhile, many
of our beloved characters from the previous entries returned in The
Labyrinth of the Spirits; Daniel, Bea, Senor Sempere, Isaac, and
of course, Fermin. This book continued their stories and then gave
each a fitting conclusion. The book also rewarded the long time
readers by finally revealing the fates of both David Martin and
Julian Carax, who were the main characters in The Angel's Game
and The Shadow of the Wind respectively. In other words, not
only did The Labyrinth of the Spirits introduced a new
protagonist and a new mystery, but it also tied up every story
threads in the end, and the conclusion is beautiful yet bitter sweet.
You will remember these characters long after you waved good bye to
them.
The Labyrinth of the Spirits is
the grand finale I have been waiting for, and it did not disappoint.
In fact, the book exceeded my expectations. The Shadow of the Wind
is my in my list of top 5
books of all time, and I like The Labyrinth of the Spirits as
much as The Shadow of the Wind, so this is saying a lot about
the love I have for this book. Now that I have read the entire
series, I realized Zafon is a genius, because you can enter this
literary maze from any book in the series, yet still reach the heart
of it. I love this series. This is one I will revisit many times in
the future.
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