Limited 20th-anniversary edition of second-best selling Spanish novel in history released (and new posthumous work by its author)

TO MARK International Book Day – which coincides with St George's Day in England and Dia de Sant Jordi in Catalunya – a nationally-renowned publishing house has released a 20th anniversary edition of a novel they did not want to print, but are glad they did.

In fact, about 15 million readers worldwide are glad they did, too.

If Carlos Ruiz Zafón's name as an author does not mean much to you, the title of his most famous book, La Sombra del Viento or, in English, The Shadow of the Wind, probably will – and for those who have not read it in either, or in one of the other 36 languages it has been translated into, the novel is an excellent snapshot of Spain's culture, as well as nearly impossible to put down.

It reveals life among ordinary people in the post-war years, the early part of dictator General Franco's régime and flashbacks to the troubles of the Civil War itself, in terms of life and society at the time rather than actual conflict or bombs dropping; it paints a clear picture of parts of Barcelona city frequented by, and unknown to, tourists, and reveals plenty about the personality and humour of Spaniards as a people, full of witty ripostes, turns of phrase and very one-off characters.

All these elements have led to Ruiz Zafón's being dubbed 'the modern-day Charles Dickens of Spain', and his writing style benefits from insider knowledge through his own cultural background – born and bred in, and growing up in, Barcelona – and an objective, observant outsider's view, given that he lived in Los Angeles, California, from his late 20s to the end of his life.

His turn of phrase and pen form part of a family of authors throughout history who immediately cause you to remember all the others, who exploit the very recognisable style they all share in very different genres, but who could have written almost anything and still appeal to their audience, even a shopping list: British ones who need little introduction include Dickens himself, Terry Pratchett, Douglas 'Hitchhiker' Adams, Zadie 'White Teeth' Smith, Louis 'Captain Corelli' De Bernières, and Evelyn 'Brideshead' Waugh.

Planeta's wise choice: Why they didn't reject the manuscript, even though they were going to

Planeta received the manuscript for La Sombra del Viento in the year 2000 as an entry for a literature prize competition, the Fernando Lara Award, but were not terribly enthralled; it was only fellow Catalunya-born author Terenci Moix's insistence that they give it a try, as he was completely captivated by it, that finally led to the publishers agreeing to run off a few copies, just to keep Moix quiet.

A handful of editions reached bookshops in 2001, but went largely unnoticed.

Then, in 2007, an international panel voted it among the top 100 'World's Best Novels in Spanish' for the last 25 years – and, overnight, it became the new Da Vinci Code and Harry Potter rolled into one, with even the most sceptical members of the public reading it to find out what the hype was all about.

It had spent nearly six years selling the odd copy in other languages, meaning it was not an entirely unknown quantity, but more of a 'niche' read – until Spain finally discovered it 14 years ago.

By the time of Ruiz Zafón's tragically-young death from bowel cancer aged 55 in June 2020, La Sombra del Viento had shifted well over 15 million copies worldwide, and accounted for 40% of his total book sales, despite being one of eight he had published between 1994 and 2016.

It is now, officially, the second-most sold Spanish novel in history, beaten only by Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quijote, and made Ruiz Zafón the second-most read Spanish-language fiction author on earth, again only beaten by Cervantes and ahead of Latin American modern legends such as Isabel Allende, Mario Vargas Llosa and the late Gabriel García Márquez.

Terenci Moix passed away in 2014, but for the last seven years of his life, was quite legitimately able to say, “I told you so, Planeta.”

What's so special about the new print-run?

The limited-edition 20th anniversary book will be 'numbered and illustrated', says Planeta – finally, thanks to Riki Blanco, readers will be able to form a truer picture for themselves of the people, places and action in the novel.

It might inspire even more readers to head to Barcelona with a street-map and a copy of Sombra in their hand, so they can take a tour of Daniel Sempere's city and guess where the Cemetery of Forgotten Books might lie beneath the surface.

Blanco, 43, is a high-profile illustrator who started his career aged 22 and has since worked extensively with publishers, the press, advertising, and in animated film, painting, and set and scene design.

As well as having illustrated over 30 books, Riki Blanco's works have appeared regularly in national newspapers such as El País, El Diario and El Mundo, and international press including The New Yorker, Variety and Libération.

Aged just 29, he won the National Illustration Award in 2007.

The anniversary edition will, it appears, only be released in Spanish and in Spain, as well as possible distribution in other Spanish-speaking countries.

But if you have read it as The Shadow of the Wind in English, it would be an excellent companion to the translated copy, to help increase your ability at reading in Spanish, or to see how it was worded in the original if you are already able to read in both languages.

The English edition is a double masterpiece: It was cleverly translated by Lucía Graves, who was born in Mallorca and is the daughter of late World War I veteran and prolific British author Robert Graves, creator of I, Claudius and his own pre- and post-War memoir, Goodbye To All That.

What it's about

Critics among the reading public have said the downside to Sombra is that it is slow-moving for the first 100 pages – the setting (Barcelona, 1945) and main characters are introduced, Sempere the antique bookstore owner and his teenage son Daniel, the enigmatic blind Clara who becomes the subject of the latter's early-life unrequited love, and his finding the only surviving novel by unknown author Julián Carax which will change his life, after his father shows him the massive underground emporium known as the Cemetery of Forgotten Books; here, we learn Daniel's mother Isabella died from an illness when he was very young and reading helps him distract himself from his grief.

But from about this point onwards – when homeless Fermín comes into the story, the terrifying 'man without a face' appears on the scene, and Daniel tries to find out if Carax wrote anything else he could read – is where even readers with the shortest attention span admit to having been kept awake all night trying hard not to let their eyes shut in case they missed anything.

Tragedy is not lacking, nor at least a hint of violence, among the mystery and suspense, and a gothic atmosphere with the standard creaky, scary, abandoned house, but dark, dry humour is rarely more than a paragraph or two away, romance rears its inevitable (albeit delightfully-real, feet-on-the-ground) head, and plenty of unexpected twists and a feel-good ending are guaranteed.

It reads perfectly well as a stand-alone novel, but has four follow-ups – El Juego del Ángel (The Angel's Game), a frantically-fast moving parallel tale which also works as a stand-alone, but where questions the reader may be left with can be resolved by picking up the next two – El Prisionero del Cielo, where the horrors of the Civil War and supporting the wrong side are revealed from a layman's point of view, but which includes an ironic take on another, very-famous novel mentioned throughout it, and El Laberinto de los Espíritus (The Labyrinth of the Spirits), a 900-page doorstopper which feels more like 90 pages, literally 'reads itself', and ties up the loose ends of the mystery that took 15 years to pen and publish from end to end.

A treat for fans: Brand-new Ruiz Zafón fiction hits the shelves

Although, sadly, Carlos Ruiz Zafón left this world just four years after finishing the 'Cemetery of Forgotten Books' series, he has recently (in late November, anyway) reappeared posthumously on the shelves in Spain with a brand-new publication hitherto unread by any of his fans.

La Ciudad de Vapor ('Steam City') is currently only available in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and catalán, but this is not likely to be the case for very long, so if you're not confident about trying to read it in the original, you may not need to wait too patiently for an English version to appear.

For those who already read in Spanish, the new edition, now out in hardback, is a collection of Ruiz Zafón's unpublished short stories, sometimes gothic, sometimes historical, tragic and humorous in equal doses, often supernatural (or appearing to be so at first glance, even if they turn out not to be), and always filled with suspense, enigmas and twists.

The entire collection is barely 200 pages long, but for anyone lamenting the impossibility of ever again being able to buy 'the latest Ruiz Zafón', La Ciudad de Vapor has come as a wonderful surprise.

And that's how the author meant it to be, it has since been revealed. Ruiz Zafón compiled the collection towards the end of his life as a 'thanks' and a 'love letter' to his fans who had followed his 'Forgotten Books' series since the turn of the century – and reveals extra details about the lives, backgrounds, setting and characters of those who feature in the tetralogy in this new publication, his unexpected gift to his readers from the afterlife.