'The Angel’s Game' asks how much for your soul

“A writer never forgets the first time he accepted a few coins or a word of praise in exchange for a story. He will never forget the sweet poison of vanity in his blood and the belief that, if he succeeds in not letting anyone discover his lack of talent, the dream of literature will provide him with a roof over his head, a hot meal at the end of the day, and what he covets the most: his name printed on a miserable piece of paper that surely will outlive him. A writer is condemned to remember that moment, because from then on he is doomed and his soul has a price.”

— “The Angel’s Game,”

by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Whenever I have customers come into Books on the Bosque and they ask me who my favorite author is, I immediately respond resoundingly that it’s Carlos Ruiz Zafón.

He wrote a four-book series titled “The Cemetery of Forgotten Books.” The first book, “The Shadow of the Wind,” may sound familiar to some readers due to the immense worldwide success it received. Each book in the series can be read as stand-alone gothic mysteries. For readers who love books about books and bookstores, all four stories are a delight.

The second book in the series, “The Angel’s Game,” is set in Barcelona, Spain, in the final days of World War I and ends in a mysterious epilogue in 1945.

The protagonist in the story is David Martín. He was born in poverty to an alcoholic father and a mother who abandoned him. After his father is shot on the streets of Barcelona, he ends up living at a failing newspaper press called The Voice of Industry. The star newspaper journalist is a well-to-do man named Pedro Vidal, who takes David in and allows him to apprentice at the paper.

As David gets older, the editor gives him a job writing penny dreadfuls for the newspaper. David worked and wrote at a very intense pace, and it paid off. His stories became so popular that it helped get the paper into the black. Suddenly the plot changes and in walks a mysterious, sinister Frenchman named Andreas Corelli who claims to be a publisher.

He commissions David to write a religious text that has the power to change hearts and minds. In return, he will receive a very handsome sum of money. Once David agrees to write the book, he starts to be consumed with haunting shadows that cross his path.

“The Angel’s Game” is a richly written story that provides all the guilty pleasures that go along with the selling of one’s soul.

It is so easy to immerse oneself into this book as it is a page turner. Every page includes some introspective truths, for example: “Envy is the religion of the mediocre. It comforts them, it soothes their worries, and finally it rots their souls, allowing them to justify their meanness and their greed until they believe these to be virtues.”

Zafón is a master writer and his books deserve to be savored, then revisited frequently for new discoveries.

Deborah Condit is the owner of Books on the Bosque, located at 6261 Riverside Plaza Lane, Suite A-2, or at booksonthebosque.com.