The Shadow of the Wind

The author of one of the two novels entitled The Shadow of the Wind, Julián’s life and his writing form the mysterious and sinister heart of this novel. Daniel desperately seeks the truth about this mysterious man, the timing and the reason for his flight to Paris, the truth about Julián’s childhood, and an explanation for the shadowy figure—Laín Coubert, the name of the devil in Carax’s novel—who is buying and burning all of Julián’s books. In his own portion of the narrative, Julián falls in love with Penélope Aldaya at first sight. Their doomed love affair plays out against the background of the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, with the political chaos doubling and echoing the personal chaos later experienced by Daniel and Bea in their love affair.

When Julián and Penélope are caught making love by her mother, their plans to flee Barcelona are thwarted; Julián is forced to escape to Paris on his own, aided by his friend Miquel.

Seventeen years pass, during which Julián writes eight published novels, including his last novel, The Shadow of the Wind, while he earns his living by playing the piano in a brothel in Paris. Only the support of the madam and owner of the brothel, Irene Marceau, keeps Julián alive.

Julián eventually returns to Barcelona in search of his Penélope. There is no trace of her, however, and her family has moved to Argentina; their palatial residence left empty and abandoned. Julián—driven mad by his discovery of Penélope’s and their stillborn son’s, David’s, tombs within the ruins of the Aldaya’s house—takes on the persona of Laín Coubert, the devil character in The Shadow of the Wind, seeking out and burning all of Julián Carax’s books. Laín Coubert is a devil character, in both books titled The Shadow of the Wind.

An odd and violent schoolboy friend of Julián Carax’s, Fumero grows up to be a corrupt and murderous police inspector. He ruthlessly seeks to destroy Julián and all of his friends due to his jealousy over Julián’s love for Penélope. The primary antagonist in the novel, he acts an evil, devilish character for Fermín, too, hounding, beating, and imprisoning Fermín at his whim.

Fumero’s death at Julián’s hands ends the tragic consequences of both Fumero’s obsessive love for Penélope and hatred of Julián, and Julián’s own self-loathing over his girlfriend's “abandonment”. Julián, as Laín Coubert, has lost everything valuable; he has nothing to lose but his life, which he no longer cares about.

Fumero is one of the devil characters and a personification of evil within this novel.

Beautiful and bold, Bea is Tomás’ sister and Daniel Sempere’s love interest. Engaged to marry a soldier and family friend, Bea struggles against her feelings for Daniel. Bea is also a student at the university, where she is pursuing a degree in literature. Despite familial pressure, Daniel and Bea carry on a secret relationship, culminating in her pregnancy at age seventeen. Bea’s love story has a happy ending; she and Daniel marry and live happily together. Bea has a particularly close relationship with their son, Julián.

Julián and Penélope fall in love at first sight when she is thirteen years old and Julian is fourteen. Penelope is a sweet, gentle, and unworldly girl; she does not have a strong or forceful personality. Their doomed love affair continues until they are caught together by Penelope’s mother.

Penelope dies by hemorrhaging after childbirth; her son is stillborn. Don Aldaya is directly responsible for her death and her son’s because he never allowed them to have proper medical care. Penelope died screaming and banging on the door for help that never came.

Rich and easily influenced, Jorge Aldaya takes after his father in his brutality and violent personality. Though he was a close friend of Julián Carax’s for part of their schooling, his hatred of Julian arises from the loss of the family fortune, for which he blames Julian, and the encouragement of Fumero in this belief. He is Penélope’s older brother, and Julián's half-brother through their father.

Julián’s relationship with Penélope devastates the Aldaya family. Though he originally immigrates to Argentina, Jorge dies in Paris in 1936 when challenging Julián to a duel to avenge Penélope’s honor. Jorge is merely a violent fool set in motion by Fumero to draw Julian back to Barcelona in search of Penélope. Fumero’s ruse is successful. In addition, Jorge’s death is blamed on Julián, even though Fumero gave Jorge a faulty pistol that Fumero knew would blow up in Jorge’s face.

Don Aldaya is a powerful, wealthy, unscrupulous business executive and a tyrannical father. He shows up at the Fortuny hat shop one day, when Julian is about 14 years old, and he is impressed with Julián’s intelligence and forthright manner. He sponsors Julián at San Gabriel’s School.

He is directly responsible for Penélope’s death in childbirth, as he locks her in her room alone until after the baby is born. Both mother and child die. He takes this cruel action because he is both Penélope’s and Julián’s father.

Fermín, once a valued secret service agent, falls on hard times when the government collapses after the war. Daniel rescues Fermín from his homeless and hopeless state, when he recognizes Fermín’s kindness and intelligence. Fermín becomes Daniel’s best friend and mentor. When Daniel's father gives Fermín a permanent job at the bookshop, they are both horrified to discover the torture that Fermín endured at the hands of Fumero and his thugs. Daniel and his father determine that they will protect and help Fermín. Fermín uses his secret service skills to support Daniel’s detective work concerning Julián Carax.

Tomás Aguilar is Daniel’s best friend, until Daniel’s love for his sister, Bea, tears their friendship and the Aguilar family apart.

Miquel Moliner is one of Julián’s school friends and eventually Julian’s best friend. The brilliant, but morbid, son of an arms manufacturer father and a mother who committed suicide, Miquel passes messages between Penélope and Julián and encourages them to flee. He helps them by giving Julián money and advice. However, he is too late. Only Julián is able to escape to Paris. When Miquel discovers what has happened to Penélope, he does not tell Julián. He also never tells Julian that Don Aldaya is his father and that Penelope was his half-sister.

A sensitive, rich, and yet humble man, Miquel works himself nearly to death when he learns he has tuberculosis. Miquel falls in love with Nuria Monfort; they marry, despite the fact that both of them know that Nuria is in love with Julián Carax. By the end of the novel, Miquel knows that he is a dying man, and he sacrifices his life to save Julián from Fumero.

Beautiful, intelligent, and eccentric, Daniel interviews Nuria Monfort in his pursuit of information about Julián Carax. A femme fatal, Nuria worked at Julián Carax’s publishing house in Barcelona. Upon meeting Julián in Paris, she falls deeply in love with him. Julián does not reciprocate her love, but the two engage in a sexual relationship anyway.

When Daniel discovers that she has lied to him about Julián, he decides to confront her, but she is stabbed to death by Fumero before he can. Knowing that she is being pursued by Fumero, she writes a history of her knowledge about Julián’s life and her relationship with him. Daniel receives this information after her death.

Nuria is also the daughter of Isaac Monfort, who keeps the keys at the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. She is estranged from her father, but the reason for this estrangement is never explained in the novel.

The caretaker at the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, Isaac is estranged for undisclosed reasons from his daughter, Nuria. Isaac is the first person to offer Daniel assistance in his quest for information about Julián Carax. He tells Daniel that his daughter, Nuria, saved Carax’s books and hid them in the Cemetery. He also knows that Nuria fell in love with Julián Carax, though she denies this.

Clara is the niece of the wealthy Don Gustavo Barceló. She is very beautiful—blonde and goddess-like—yet blind. For several years, the young Daniel comes to her uncle's house to sit and read with her. Though she is about ten years older than he is, Daniel develops a schoolboy crush on her. Daniel forces himself to forget her, when he realizes that she is merely toying with his affections and carrying on a sexual affair with her piano instructor. Therefore, Clara is the second beloved woman, after Daniel’s adored, dead mother, to break his heart.

Abusive and ignorant, the hat maker marries Sophie Carax, a lonely music teacher. Because he does not understand the physical realties of adult romance and sex, he mistakenly attributes Sophie’s attempts to educate him as evil and corrupt. He abuses her horribly and treats her like a slave. She is Julián Carax’s mother. He also does not understand or know how to love Julián, a dreamer with an impressive imagination and storytelling ability. He calls Julián names and tries to ruin Julián’s chances in life, specifically when he insults Julián in his visit to Don Aldaya.

However, when Julian returns to Barcelona, his father helps him. He has had a change of heart. Don Fortuny has a rare opportunity: the ability to make up for his past behavior by showing love and compassion to Julián.

Father Fernando Ramos was a scholarship boy at San Gabriel’s School. A schoolboy friend of Julián Carax’s, he later becomes a priest and a teacher at their old school. He tells Daniel about the boy’s school days. More specifically, he provides information on a group of friends that consisted of Julián, Miquel Monliner, Jorge Aldaya, and Javier Fumero.