Carlos Ruiz Zafón

El juego del Ángel

Das Spiel des Engels (Jubiläumsaktion)

Angela Zeiler

Neid ist die Religion der Mittelmäßigen. Er stärkt sie, entspricht der sie zernagenden Unruhe, verdirbt letzten Endes ihre Seele und gestattet ihnen, die eigene Niedertracht und Gier zu rechtfertigen, bis sie glauben, diese seien Tugenden und die Himmelspforten stünden nur Unglücksraben wie ihnen offen, die durchs Leben ziehen, ohne eine weitere Spur zu hinterlassen als ihre hinterhältigen Bemühungen, all jene zu verachten, auszuschließen oder sogar, wenn möglich, zu vernichten, die durch ihre schiere Existenz ihre seelische und geistige Armut sowie ihre Unentschlossenheit bloßlegen. Selig der, den die Idioten anbellen, denn seine Seele wird ihnen nie gehören.

Angel's Game

Cristian Garcia

Me gusto menos que el primero en la saga, sin embargo la Barcelona oscura y tétrica de Ruiz Zafón me engancho hasta el fin. Espero continuar la aventura con la tercera entrega, como bien escuche por ahí, esta tetralogía es una casa con 4 puertas distintas que siempre llegan al mismo lugar.

En la turbulenta Barcelona de los años 20 un joven escritor obsesionado con un amor imposible recibe la oferta de un misterioso editor para escribir un libro como no ha existido nunca, a cambio de una fortuna y, tal vez, mucho más. Con estilo deslumbrante e impecable precisión narrativa, el autor de La Sombra del Viento nos transporta de nuevo a la Barcelona del Cementerio de los Libros Olvidados para ofrecernos una gran aventura de intriga, romance y tragedia, a través de un laberinto de secretos donde el embrujo de los libros, la pasión y la amistad se conjugan en un relato magistral.

El juego del ángel

Alfredo santos

As other books i've read by CRZ, this was an amazing experience. His writing style, while in the same style as Arturo Perez Reverte, is full of witty remarks, amazing dialogues and an over the top literate vocabulary. 

The characters are well developed and you grow fond of them. I think Isabella was my favorite one, specially from her empowered attitude and snappy comebacks. 

The ending has left all the community perplexed and open to interpretation. I am still trying to get over the last 60 pages and figure it out for myself.

Dana Kraft

I read this because I really enjoyed Shadow of the Wind, which is a tough act to follow. I liked the writing in this but the story was darker and had fewer moments that made me laugh or smile like Shadow of the Wind. The best parts were the developing relationship between David and Isabella.

The most striking passage to me was a conversation between David and the boss about belief, passion and hatred. I read this in 2017 and it just feels so timely even though the book was published in 2009. The context of the actual conversation in the book made it even more thought-provoking for me.

"...Nothing makes us believe more than fear, the certainty of being threatened. When we feel like victims, all our actions and beliefs are legitimized, however questionable they may be. Our opponents or simply our neighbors stop sharing common ground with us and become our enemies. We stop being aggressors and become defenders. The envy, greed or resentment that motivates us becomes sanctified because we tell purselves we're acting in self defense. Evil, menace - those are always the preserve of the other. The first step for believing passionately is fear. Fear of losing our identity, our life, our status, or our beliefs. Fear is the gunpowder and hatred is the fuse. Dogma, the final ingredient is only a lighted match." p. 297

The Angel's Game

Nimish

Carlos Ruiz Zafon had me impressed with 'The Shadow of the Wind', (TSOTW) which I would say is one of the best books I have ready in many years. So it was but natural for me to buy not just his second but also the third book in the 'Cemetery of Forgotten Books' series. The Angel's Game although is the second in the series, could actually be considered a prequel. Well sort of, because you see the younger versions of some characters from the first book. But in terms of the narrative, this may just as well have been a stand alone book.

Plot
The Angel's Game (TAG) revolves around a writer's life and is basically his journey from sanity to borderline derangement. The novel is written in the first person narrative style, that immediately puts you right in the middle of the action. David Martin is an aspiring novelist who has had a not-so-great childhood. While trying to stay away from poverty, and after losing his father at a very young age, Martin manages to find work at the newspaper where his father used to work. He has a flair for writing, and he realises soon enough that this is his ticket out of the misery. Thankfully, his talent is noticed by a rich writer at the paper - Don Pedro Vidal - who not only asks the editor to give Martin a break, but also ends up being a very close confidante of Martin. 

Sempere and Sons bookshop, which was last seen in TSOTW, makes its entry and acts as the bookstore which fans the literary fire in Martin. Eventually, Martin becomes an established writer, sometimes writing under his own name, sometimes under a pen name. Years later he gets a major deal from a filthy rich publisher, which is where things start taking, at times surprising and at times down right nasty, twists and turns. 

My takeaways
The Angel's Game is a dark novel, much much darker than TSOTW. The main protagonist has a very creative imagination since he earns his stripes as a writer of mystery episodic novels. The book within a book narrative style is maintained and it is just as fascinating as the first novel. Reflections on books, writing, reading and just conversations between characters around books will certainly keep any book lover engrossed and heavily invested in the characters. It is no wonder that you will fall in love with the characters and start wondering how cool it would be to actually meet them for a cup of coffee and talk about books and literature. The attachment leads to some really painful moments as well as the story progresses, as inevitably some characters do not live on till the end. 

I really loved what Zafon said in an interview about The Angel's Game, "There are many games in TAG, and one of them is with the reader. In the sense that at some point, you have to step into the story and interpret it". I could easily resonate to this for the simple fact that unlike TSOTW, TAG is not a novel which will answer all your questions. TSOTW has multiple plot points and many characters, but there is a proper convergence of all the points and the story feels complete. In TAG there are again multiple plot points, but not all of them converge. The reader has to fill in some gaps. In fact, after I finished the novel, I still had a lot of questions on my mind. Although, while reading it, I was interpreting it the way I wanted to, I was hoping that in the end there would be a proper resolution. But that does not take away from the overall experience. 

Barcelona as a character theme is maintained throughout the novel. I was making notes of the various places, and it is great to read about places I am familiar with and had visited when I was there. I love the way Zafon adds the dark mysterious element in the way he describes the places and streets of Barcelona. As though they were actual human beings with a peculiar character or attitude. I don't know I would have been able to appreciate the descriptions had I not visited the Gothic Quarter in Barcelona - the main reason I started reading Zafon in the first place. 

Would I rate it higher than TSOTW? Well, that's a really tricky one as the two stories have completely different styles although within the same universe, both literal and metaphorical. I loved breezing through some sections where certain mysteries are being unfolded. But unlike TSOTW where apart from the main protagonist there are a lot of characters who leave a mark on you, in TAG there are two or three really strong characters, my personal favourites - Isabella, David and Sempere Senior. Lot of characters are introduced towards the second half of the book and do not get enough time to form into dense characters - something that was the opposite case in TSOTW. 

If you are looking for complete resolution to the mystery, with absolutely no room for doubt, then I think you will be disappointed. But one thing that will keep you engrossed throughout apart from the mystery element, is the process of seeing the story unspool from a writer's perspective - who also happens to be writing many other books within TAG. 

I already have the third book in the series, which I hope to start soon. Maybe after The Angel's Game hangover subsides. 

Before I forget, Lucia Graves - the translator of the book - please take a bow! Reading it in English, I could sense that translating this novel would have been particularly challenging as compared to TSOTW. Graves had to know just where to hold back and where to prod on ahead. Remember, this is a novel where the reader also has to do some work. 

The book is sprinkled with lovely quotes. Taking a leave with five of my favourite quotes:

- Every book has a soul, the soul of the person who wrote it and the soul of those who read it and dream about it.

- I stepped into the bookshop and breathed in that perfume of paper and magic that strangely no one had ever thought of bottling.

- Do you know the best thing about broken hearts? They can only really break once the rest is just scratches.

- 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.

- It's curious how easy it is to tell a piece of paper what you don't dare say to someone's face.

Danny Engström

Das Spiel des Engels

Kaya

Der Stern ist für mein großes Fragezeichen im Gesicht

Celeste Richardson

Actual rating: 4.5 stars

For close to a decade I’ve thought that The Shadow of the Wind was one of the most brilliant novels I had ever read. I had no idea that it was a preamble, setting up for an even bigger story. And I truly believe that The Angel’s Game just scratched the surface; I can feel in my bones that there’s far more to come. I’ve also been reliably informed by TS and Petrik that all of the questions I found left frustratingly open at the end of this book will indeed be answered later in the series, which does nothing but add to my excitement.
“Poetry is written with tears, novels with blood, and history with invisible ink.”
In this book we meet David Martín, an orphan who yearns to be a writer. Thanks to his mentor, Pedro Vidal, Martín is given his chance. But when his writing career takes an unexpected trajectory, he finds himself making a deal with the devil and mirroring the tragic history of another. At its core, Martín’s story is one of intriguing mystery and gothic horror. The atmosphere of this novel was so creepy that I often couldn’t tell if there was a supernatural element to it or if the eeriness was due exclusively to the lush, dark setting. That question wasn’t truly answered, even in the final pages, though its answer was alluded to. I loved the balance Zafón struck between reality and the supernatural; it definitely kept me on my toes.
“Inspiration comes when you stick your elbows on the table, your bottom on the chair and you start sweating. Choose a theme, an idea, and squeeze your brain until it hurts. That’s called inspiration.”
The Angel’s Game was radically different in tone than its predecessor, The Shadow of the Wind, but that made the Martín’s search for answers even more compelling. Where The Shadow of the Wind was a historical fiction literary mystery, The Angel’s Game is, as stated above, a gothic horror, though there is plenty of mystery and romance and even magical realism in its pages. While I truly loved the atmosphere of the book, and have rarely come across such lush descriptions of setting, the mystery was what truly kept me reading. I was dying to know how Martín’s story would tie into Daniel Sempere’s tale, and finally gaining that information was incredibly satisfying.
“The only way you can truly get to know an author is through the trail of ink he leaves behind him; the person you think you see is only an empty character: truth is always hidden in fiction.”
Probably my least favorite element of this book was the central romance. If it can even be considered central. Martín’s romantic interest came across as incredibly two-dimensional, in my opinion, and seemed to only be there to drive the plot forward instead of serving as a character in her own right. I’m not a fan of damsels as plot devices, and that’s truly what she felt like. I know Zafón can pen wonderful female characters, as he demonstrates beautifully in another character in this novel, so I know he could have done better with this particular woman. Besides that, I really have no other complaints about this novel. Especially since, as I mentioned earlier, TS and Petrik assured me that my questions would be answer in the next two novels. 
“Sooner or later, the word becomes flesh and the flesh bleeds.”
As with The Shadow of the Wind, my very favorite element of The Angel’s Game was the role of books, both in plot and setting.  Sempere and Sons remains one of the coziest bookshops I’ve come across in fiction, and I wish I could live there. Then you have The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, after which this entire series is named. There’s something so magical about the idea of the Cemetery, and as well as about its role as a setting. The thought of a nearly endless labyrinth of books, whose authors and existences have been lost to society, hidden deep within a city, is enchanting. It also provides a beautiful continuity between the novels, and the repetition of dialogue regarding it lends a reverence and awe to the Cemetery’s existence that moves me. 
“This place is a mystery. A sanctuary. Every book, every volume you see, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and the should of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens. In this place, books no longer remembered by anyone, books that are lost in time, live forever, waiting for the day when they will reach a new reader’s hands, a new spirit…”
Zafón also has profound things to say about books themselves, the art of writing, and even the impact story has on religion and philosophy and psychology, all of which I found fascinating.  And once again, both the writing and the translation of it are absolutely stunning. This is a book that begs to be annotated. Since I couldn’t bring myself to mark in my lovely physical copy, I borrowed an electronic copy from the library for the express purpose of taking notes.
“We think we understand a song’s lyrics, but what makes us believe in them, or not, is the music.”
I’m so glad I was persuaded to read beyond The Shadow of the Wind. As much as I adore that novel, it’s so exciting to see how much more there is to the story. If the third and fourth installments maintain this level of craftsmanship, The Cemetery of Forgotten Books will undoubtedly become one of my favorite series. The Angel’s Game made me think and question and laugh and feel, and I honestly can’t wait to see what else Zafón’s world has in store.

You can find  this review and more at Novel Notions.

Natalia Hernandez

Dejé una reseña en español en mi blog: http://natified.com/2015/07/28/2015-e...

The sequel to The Shadow of the Wind but it happens before those events. The only character that appears in here is Mister Sempere. The story here goes like this: a writer is chosen by a millionaire to write a book with certain rules. There are crimes, mysteries and it's the writer of this book the one in charge of discovering truths. Many of them.

Carlos Ruiz Zafon is a gifted writer, his Barcelona of 1910 is dark, rainy, humid, misterious, interesting and romantic. The atmosphere is perfect for a crime story, for a dark story. I liked this book, not more than the first one though, I really missed Fermin because he was my favorite part of The Shadow of the Wind, but it's a good book anyway. 

Again, the best part of this saga is the love it has for books themselves. Everybody in the story has a link to books, to writing, to libraries and bookstores. How can I not love that? It makes my heart go warm.

Josefina

Kali Olson

It seems that author Carlos Ruiz Zafón can't get enough of ghost stories about books. His newest novel, The Angel's Game, has the same Gothic touches of myth and mystery that his previous bestseller, The Shadow of the Wind, made so intriguing and irresistible. The Angel's Game is about a desperate young writer named David Martín. David writes a series of trashy thrillers that please the public but not his own artistic soul. He has a very few friends—a fatherly bookseller who offers encouragement and support, a wealthy writer whose pity is preferable to his charity—but David spends most of his time alone with his typewriter. Now, having survived a tragic childhood and spent most of his young adulthood lovesick for a beautiful woman he can never have, David finds himself caught in a strange bargain to write a book for an even stranger publisher. And his attempts to get to the bottom of this mystery only lead to more clues that seem to have something to do with the very same gloomy mansion that David lives and writes in. The Angel’s Game seems designed to immerse us in the both the character’s and the author’s twisted methods of storytelling; savvy readers will spot characters and places that flow from Zafón’s earlier book The Shadow of the Wind into this book, thought it is not a sequel or a prequel. Atmospheric and beautifully chilling, The Angel's Game will keep you locked in its spooky clutches until the very last page.

Katherine

wtf definitely a crazy mind fuck and unreliable narrator but wow i still love this world

Spiel DES Engels

Nick Bicko

4,5 Sterne.
Etwas zu hoher Bodycount, zeitweise ein wenig zu religiös/übernatürlich und dadurch den halben Stern schwächer als "Der Schatten des Windes". 
Und dennoch ist es auf den knapp 700 Seiten wunderbar erzählt, jederzeit fesselnd und erzählt eine Geschichte über eine Zeitspanne von mehr als einem Jahrzehnt, in der man die Liebe des Autors zu Barcelona und Büchern auf jeder Seite spürt. 
Die Verbindungen zum ersten Teil sind größer als gedacht und belohnen mit Hintergründen zu Personen in "Schatten des Windes", Kenntnis ist aber nicht nötig, um "Spiel des Engels" in vollen Zügen genießen zu können.

A riveting new masterpiece about love, literature, and betrayal from the author of the international phenomenon The Shadow of the Wind.

At the beginning of this powerful labyrinthian thriller, David Martin, a pulp fiction writer struggling to stay afloat, is holed up in an abandoned mansion in the heart of Barcelona, furiously tapping out story after story, becoming increasingly desperate and frustrated. When he is approached by a mysterious publisher offering a book deal that seems almost too good to be real. David leaps at the chance. But as he begins the work, and after a visit to the Cemetary of Forgotten Books, he realizes that there is a connection between his book and the shadows that surround his dilapidated home and that the publisher may be hiding a few troubling secrets of his own. Once again, Carols Ruiz Zafon takes us into a dark, gothic Barcelona and creates a breathtaking tale of intrigue, romance, and tragedy.
(back cover)

Zoë Schaefer

Elliot 

Maribel González

He disfrutado mucho la relectura de El juego del ángel. No recordaba muchas cosas y parece que me he leído un libro distinto. El protagonista, David Martín, e Isabella me han apasionado. Andrés Corelli, al igual que la vez anterior, me ha resultado un poco cansino. Y el trasfondo místico me dado un poco de pereza, para qué mentir. Aplaudo y a por el siguiente.

Emir Andrés Ibañez

Siguiendo la línea de La sombra del viento, esta segunda entrega de la saga de El cementerio de los libros olvidados tiene como protagonista a David Martín, un escritor obsesionado con un amor imposible que recibe una oferta para escribir un libro a cambio de una suma importante de dinero. Este libro y este editor misterioso llevarán a David por una serie de eventos que harán peligrar su vida y la de quienes lo rodean.
Fue hermoso reencontrarme con este autor. La prosa es bellísima; sus personajes, entrañables; y la trama... Uf, enrevesada. Es algo que caracteriza al autor pero madre mía que se pasó de rosca acá. Estoy seguro que no me enteré del todo qué pasó. Y hay símbolos y momentos que aún no he podido decodificar. Quedará para una segunda lectura de aquí a unos años. Aunque me siento un poco decepcionado, puedo decir que fue una experiencia agradable y dinámica, pues la historia te mantiene enganchado y las 700 páginas se pasan volando.

Omar Fernandez

I'm still processing what the hell that ending was. I'm kind of pissed and confused. But, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. This is a book where I don't know whether to rate it 5 stars or 2 stars. 

In the end, I loved the journey, and will definitely read the next book in the series. But right now, my brain feels squeezed.

Update: after finishing the series, particularly the fourth and final book, it all makes more sense now and was totally worth it. One of my favorite series of all times. 

" Je t'emmènerai dans un endroit secret où les livres ne meurent jamais et où personne ne peut les détruire... " Dans la turbulente Barcelone des années 1920, David, un jeune écrivain hanté par un amour impossible, reçoit l'offre inespérée d'un mystérieux éditeur : écrire un livre comme il n'en a jamais existé, " une histoire pour laquelle les hommes seraient capables de vivre et de mourir, de tuer et d'être tués ", en échange d'une fortune et, peut-être, de beaucoup plus. Mais du jour où il accepte ce contrat, une étrange mécanique de destruction se met en place autour de lui, menaçant les êtres qu'il aime le plus au monde. En monnayant son talent d'écrivain, David aurait-il vendu son âme au diable ? Pour reprendre sa liberté et sauver la femme qu'il aime, David puise ses forces dans la Barcelone envoûtante du Cimetière des livres oubliés, où se côtoient des êtres abandonnés de l'humanité mais aussi des personnages attachants, uniques, puissants, à l'image de ceux qui ont fait de L'Ombre du vent un immense succès international.

Le Jeu de l'ange

Laurie Abrial

J'ai adoré. Déjà hâte de dévorer le troisième tome.

Kimberly

Just as enticing as Shadow of the Wind. I enjoyed every minute reading this book. It was complex on so many levels and emotionally charged. Beautifully translated and of course beautifully written. Can't wait to read Prisoner of Heaven.

Laura

So this may be blasphemy but I think I liked this book better then the first in the series. Yes, I still think these books could do with being a little shorter. But is an amazing story to delve into for 500 or so pages, and it kept me captivated. Guess I'll have to read the next one

Il gioco dell'angelo

Giada Arenare 

Jennifer

Ich weiß gar nicht so genau wo ich anfangen soll. Bei den Verknüpfungen zum ersten Teil, die sich erst nach und nach auflösen, bei den Charakteren, die erst nach und nach in all ihren Facetten erscheinen, oder bei der Handlung, die man wirklich erst im Epilog komplett durchschaut? Zafons Schreibstil, hier natürlich in der Übersetzung von Peter Schwaar, hat mich im ersten band schon umgehauen, und enttäuscht auch hier nicht. 
Ein grandioses Buch, dass ich wirklich nur empfehlen kann.

Pia Sophia

I loved going back to The Cemetary of Forgotten Books. Carlos Ruiz Zafón wrote another great work of heartbreaking fiction, with lines that flow as smoothly and effortlessly as one would expect from him.

Today I learned that, sadly, Carlos Ruiz Zafón passed away yesterday. I am happy that he has left behind these beautiful works for him to be remembered by. Oddly, the news of him passing away reminded me somehow of David in this book. I wonder if he incorporated more of himself than usual in this complicated and ambitious protagonist.

Sonia Flores

Como siempre, la majestuosa prosa de Ruiz Zafón no me permitió despegarme del libro hasta que lo terminé. Como siempre, la intriga me mantenía al borde de la silla hasta que se develaba algún misterio y surgía otro. Como siempre, lo turbio de la historia fue más de lo que esperaba.
Sin embargo, y aunque esta fue un poco más oscura que la anterior, algunas cosas se me hicieron predecibles desde el principio hasta el final. La capacidad de este hombre para entretejer tramas imposibles y subtramas inesperadas no me dejó indiferente, pero en la mayoría de los casos ya sabía qué esperar de cada personaje y el destino de cada uno.

Con cada párrafo suyo que leo, me enamoro un poquito más de su manera de deleitarnos, no tengo quejas al respecto, leería sus libros sin pensarlo porque entre su maravillosa prosa y sus personajes difíciles me he enganchado irrevocablemente a este autor.

Por supuesto, no podían faltar los personajes insufribles y entre ellos tenía yo a Cristina. No le vi pies ni cabezas a su comportamiento y tampoco le hallé sitio en la historia fuera del puesto de amor imposible del protagonista. Al final creo que todo habría resultado mejor sin ella, pero no hablo del libro, sino del bien del personaje que por ella tanto se desvivía. Por otro lado tenía en un lugar muy especial a los Sempere y quizá un poco a Isabella, que pese a todo supieron cómo querer al Martín. La construcción de cada uno me pareció justa y no creo que pudiera esperar menos, nunca me cansaría de hablar de lo bien que me llevo con los libros con personajes bien hechos.
El final no me lo esperaba, aunque sabía bien que esa fotografía enigmática tendría un papel fundamental en algún punto de la historia, y encajó perfectamente en este punto de la historia. Estuve esperando el momento de su explicación desde su aparición en la trama.

El juego del Ángel

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