Ruiz Zafon, Carlos. The Prisoner of Heaven

Ruiz Zafon returns to the Barcelona of his The Shadow of the Wind and The Angel’s Game in this short novel which connects the characters and time periods of the previous two installments. Daniel Sempere, the young hero of The Shadow of the Wind, is now a married man, assisting his father in running their small bookstore. Business isn’t good, which is why it initially seems a blessing when a disfigured stranger buys a rare and expensive copy of The Count of Monte Cristo.  However, the man leaves the book behind with a note addressed to Daniel’s friend Fermín Romero de Torres—“ For Fermín Romero de Torres, who came back from among the dead and holds the key to the future.”  This single sentence inspires Daniel to investigate the stranger and, by extension, Fermín.  What he discovers has wider-reaching consequences than he could ever have anticipated, touching on not only Fermin’s mysterious past and prior incarceration as a political prisoner but upon the death of Daniel’s mother Isabella and the writing of a strange book by the nearly forgotten author (and fellow prisoner to Fermín) David Martin—The Angel’s Game.

The storylines begun in Ruiz Zafon’s first two books of the Cemetary of Forgotten Books series begin to interweave here in exciting ways. While shorter and perhaps a shade less complex and rich than the previous two installments, Ruiz Zafon’s fans will not want to miss The Prisoner of Heaven.  An open ending promises more to the story.