The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, has been a best-seller in its author's native Spain, and has become an international success with readers as well as literary critics. It is a story for book lovers and explores the connection between books and culture, the important place books have in history and how they affect elements of civilization. Zafon's intention in writing his novel was, as he describes, to create an "alchemy of ink and paper." Setting and culture have as much impact on the novel itself as it has had on cultures around the world. According to Benedicte Page of The Bookseller Online, "The Barcelona setting is key to the phenomenal appeal of the novel, he says. Zafon grew up in the city, just a stone's throw from Gaudi's extraordinary cathedral, the Sagrada Familia, and he attended a Jesuit school housed in a gothic red-brick extravaganza on the other side of the city." Zafon says, "Barcelona is a city which has never been burned or bombed, so it has this labyrinthine structure of history. You can see the evolution of the city in the architecture. It has a special feeling about it--not just the fashionable Barcelona with lots of cafés--a special atmosphere that is the soul of the city. It's the great enchantress; it's seductive. Madrid is a man, but Barcelona is a woman, and a mysterious one."

"Barcelona Gothic" (http://www.thebookseller.com/?pid=84&did=10336)