The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
7.7/10 dropps

In 1920s Barcelona, talented writer David Martin finds himself living alone in a
large rundown house. His publishers are little more than crooks who rob Martin of most
of his earnings. The love of his life has left David to marry David’s mentor. The plot
begins in earnest when a mysterious figure has recruited David to craft him a new
religion. After signing a contract, things begin to change.

Martin’s publishing house mysteriously burns down with his publishers inside.
Christina, who left David for his mentor, desperately attempts to make her way back into
David’s arms. It is when people begin to die all around him that David begins to wonder
if he has gotten himself in over his head. This mystery drives The Angel’s Game. In the
book (which is a prequel to his excellent earlier novel The Shadow of the Wind) Spanish
author Carlos Ruiz Zafon comes very close to crafting another classic.

Those who have read The Shadow of the Wind can recall the blissfully pulpy
quality of Zafon’s novels. The pulpiness is again at work here, and Zafon’s diction
remains masterful. The younger versions of characters from its predecessor are revisited,
as are fictitious locations like the legendary Cemetery of Forgotten Books.
The Angel’s Game thrives when it focuses on the intricacies of Martin’s life.
The emergence of Isabella, Martin’s self-appointed understudy, is a delight, and Zafon
appropriates the perfect degree of malevolence toward Andreas Corelli, the man who
hires Martin and who also may or may not be the devil.

Unfortunately, the book falters in the hundred or so pages leading up to the
novel’s conclusion. Martin’s typically melancholy disposition is at times overbearing.
His love interest, Christina, will likely frustrate readers more frequently than she intrigues
them. And the conclusion itself is somewhat baffling. It feels rushed, and it ultimately
lacks the satisfactory quality that Zafon has previously delivered so masterfully. Zafon’s
works have always blurred the line between the plausible and the fantastic, but here he
completely crosses that line and steps firmly into the realm of the supernatural, and I’m
not sure the shift works. The book is an excellent read, but it’s also a bit of a misstep.

-John Jamieson