The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon | Book Review | May 2022

 I'm going to start with the ending. Something quite out of character for me, but it was an ambiguous ending to say the least. Timelines cross over and characters' identities are fused together. But alas, let's now start at the beginning. 

First we meet David Martin, an aspiring writer working at The Voice of Industry, a newspaper house in Barcelona. He's an orphan, being abandoned by his mother as a child and his father is murdered when he is young . However, he's given the opportunity to fulfil his dreams, and is commissioned to write sensationalist novels for a sketchy publishing house (not that he knew that at the time). His naivety carries his dreams away with him, and he shuts himself away to push all his talent on to paper. 

Along with the dream comes the wealth, and he rents out the uninhabited house with dark tales entwined within it. He has no satisfaction with the sensationalist books he's been writing, he hits exhaustion. Yet, a mysterious letter lands upon him, from someone that has visited him with words before; Andreas Corelli. 

Who is Andreas Corelli? Still I have no idea after the ambiguous ending of the novel. He is painted as this heroic image at the start, praising David's work and talent, yet by the end it is clear that he is quite the opposite. 

After reading the first book from the Cemetery of Forgotten Books series, I was entranced by the way Zafon portrays Barcelona; The City of the Damned. The two protagonists in the first two novels of the series are writers, books are their life and they know the meaning of books are above their existence entirely. 

The first few lines of The Angel's Game explores how literature is both suffocating for the writer, yet a new world to delve in to for the reader: 'every book has a soul, the soul of a person who wrote it and the soul of those who read it and dream about it'. The allusion that every book has a soul inhabits what ever reader feels. Every book you read leaves an impact on you, it changes readers thought and creativity. Every single time, without fail. 

Andreas Corelli and David Martin's relationship in the book is steady, until David doesn't want to submit to his demands. The mysterious figure of Corelli builds doubts on David's conscience. Of course it wouldn't be a Zafon novel without a twist of romance. There are a few romantic figures in the novel, but David's 'love at first sight moment' is Cristina Sagnier. There aren't any happy moments in the novel that are of importance, it's heartbreak after heartbreak for David. I think that's the most depressing thing to note about the novel, David never gets what he deserves. 

The people in his life and their meaning are entirely temporary, just like they always have been. He's lonely both in youth and in older age too.  The only connections he makes are to his sentimental love of novels and where he found that: Sempere & Son Bookshop. Loss and grief are second nature of David, which makes it seem like every death in the novel is a mere stepping stone to his last place of residence; 'from my window I see a small wooden jetty that stretches out into the sea and, moored at the end, the boat that came with the house, a simple rowing boat in which I sometimes go out as far as the reef' (p.498). Peace at last. In this version of a happy ending, suddenly Andreas Corelli arrives with a young girl he hands over to David, named Cristina. The young version of his love, to start over. Which in my eyes seems slightly inappropriate, but it's symbolic of renewal and growth for David. Andreas Corelli's identity is an image of a saviour and the devil at the same time. Which one is he? Only the reader can interpret... 

I loved the first in the series (The Shadow of the Wind), and this was just as good with the magical realism and the suspenseful moments at the turn of each page. The beautiful and archaic imagery of Barcelona was the main theme of my enjoyment and explores the history of what makes Barcelona the setting of this remarkable book. 

Keep Reading, 

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