The Prisoner Of Heaven [Hardcover]

Spanish author Carlos Ruiz Zafon's new novel, "The Prisoner of Heaven", is the third in his series set in Barcelona. Taking place in 1957, with flashbacks to 1939, Zafon returns with young bookseller Daniel Sempere and his older friend, Fermin Romero de Torres. The two friends, celebrating Fermin's upcoming marriage to his long-time girlfriend, are faced with an uncomfortable fact: "Fermin Romero de Torres" officially died in 1939. He was listed as dying after escaping from a brutal Spanish Civil War prison outside of Barcelona. He's lived "off-the-books" for the past 18 years and now he has to become officially alive.

In confiding in Daniel, Fermin has to recount his time in the prison. Convicted of "war crimes" by trumped-up charges, Fermin endures a year or so in captivity with others who are there on equally vague charges. By 1939, Francisco Franco's Nationalist government had consolidated power in the war which began in 1936. The prisons were full of political dissenters as well as common criminals. Conditions were terrible and prisoners were often beaten and shot for no apparent reasons. Fermin was held with a famous writer, a murdering thief, and a doctor. The prison warden was trying to find the thief's booty for himself and also use the author to "ghost write" literature of which he, the warden, was going to claim authorship.

Ruiz Zafon goes back and forth between 1939 and 1957 with nary a dropped plot point. I thought it would help to have read the previous two books in the series, but the author says it's not necessary; the reader can read the three in any order. That's good to find out because for some reason I missed reading the second book in the series. Carlos Ruiz Zafon's writing is superb; both his plots and characters are right on the mark. The books have been noted as being "dark" and "gothic", but I think that's not right. Ruiz Zafon writing is SO evocative of Barcelona of the period that what appears to be "dark", really isn't. Maybe it helps to have visited Barcelona, because I'm familiar enough with the setting that I can see in my mind the places he refers to.

I can heartily recommend "The Prisoner of Heaven" for the readers of either or both the previous books in the series. I can also recommend it as a stand-alone novel. As for me, I'm going to order the second book right now!

The biggest problem with the latest installment of Zafon's Cemetery of Forgotten Books series is that it is much too short! Set in the now-familiar backdrop of post Spanish Civil War Barcelona, "Prisoner of Heaven" stars a character the readers of "Shadow of the Wind" will be familiar with: Fermin Romero de Torres, the witty side-kick and mentor of Daniel Sempere. I could have read at least 200 more pages of Fermin's story without it being enough. The book being the size it is, I finished it less than two days after it was delivered.

After a dark and mysterious stranger buys a rare copy of "The Count of Monte Cristo" at the Sempere bookshop and leaves it as a gift to Fermin, with a cryptic note scribbled on the flyleaf, Fermin finds himself in a position where he must reveal to his good friend Daniel the entire story of how he came to be the self-appointed protector of the Sempere family, and why his life is now in mortal peril.

In the pure tradition of dark and twisted Gothic novels, you are wrapped up in a blood and greed-soaked intrigue. You do not need to have read "Shadow of the Wind" or the "Angel's Game" before reading this one, but the three books definitely enrich each other's stories. Like the other two, it is a story build into another story, almost like a literary Russian doll. Fermin Romero de Torres is an amazing character: clever, loyal and hilarious. I was very curious to know where he came from and what he had been up to before he landed on the Sempere bookshop's doorstep: my questions have finally been answered in a most satisfying way. There is a very good reason Zafon is the most read Spanish author since Cervantes.

Pick up this book, and you will not be able to put it down until its finished. A great ride!

Fermin is back and so are his witty remarks that make one laugh loud, another awesome book by Zafon , translator deserves prize for great work