The Angel’s Game
…by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.
Set in the early 1900 Barcelona, this story introduces us to the narrator, David Martin, who works at a local newspaper and aspires to be a writer someday. David gets an opportunity to write a story for a newspaper under a pen name, and thus signs a contract with the publishers of the paper. Few years down the line, David realizes that the kind of story that he writes for the paper is not what he really enjoys doing, and then enters a mysterious foreign publisher, Andreas Corelli, who offers David a chance to write a book under his own name in exchange for a big sum of money. The catch? – David has to write a book that will help create a new religion. Intrigued, yet unsure, David doesn’t take up Corelli’s offer right away, but when things in his life start going downhill, he gives in and starts off with the project. Soon after, David finds himself in the middle of a maze, trying to solve the mystery of his foreign publisher among other things. As he digs more and more to get answers, he’s only left with further questions.
Who is Corelli? How this project changes the course of David’s life. Does he get to finish his project? Why he finds himself in a big pool of trouble – police chasing him, people close to him passing away, people he comes in contact with getting killed, not knowing how and when everything is going to end. David’s life is anything but peaceful.
This book, working wonders to bring out the charm of a dark and depressed Barcelona, left me satisfied, intrigued, yet confused. The author does a superb job of narrating a tale of this proportion paying attention to every scene, every detail and never leaving the reader bored. I was hooked, right from the first page; had I had the time to read it all in one go, I would have…this is one of those books that is so thrilling in its scope that it will leave a reader wanting more with every turn of the page. The story flows flawlessly; the characters are all very well-drawn; the prose evokes the right emotions at the right times making the readers connect and identify with the different characters. All in all, this author’s work is a must-read.
Now for the part what left me confused – while I couldn’t put down the book especially once I got to the later part of the book, at the end, I was left with many questions than anything else. And honestly, I don’t know if that’s because this is something that is out of realm of understanding, or because the intention was to leave the reader in that puzzled state of mind. The author leaves the story with an open end – while it didn’t bother me that I was left to interpret the ending to my liking, to my understanding, it did baffle me a bit because of all the unanswered questions I have…maybe I’ll get the answers if I read it once more and fill my head with all those details that I might have missed the first time around, but until then I’ll have to settle for leaving my concerns behind. Anyhow, this doesn’t take away from the wonderful journey that was reading the book; so I won’t complain much.
Overall, I would highly recommend it – a tale of love, obsession, passion, friendship, a little bit of life’s philosophies with a tint of supernatural outlook makes reading this book a one of a kind experience.
My rating: 5*.
*for the rating scale, click here.
