TGIF- “Thank God Its Friday” is what the acronyms are supposed to be. But today, the ‘Good Friday’ turned into a mundane mood just like the English weather. Carlos Ruiz Zafon, the world-renowned author of the best selling novel, The Shadow of the Wind, has died at only 55.
According to the report made by his publisher, Planeta, the Spanish author died on Friday at his Los Angeles home. The most-read Spanish author after Cervantes had been diagnosed with colon cancer since 2018.
The statement read,
“Today is a very sad day for the entire Planeta team that knew him and worked with him for 20 years, in which a friendship that transcends professionalism has been forged.”
Carlos Ruiz Zafon received international fame with ‘The Shadow of the Wind.’
“…sometimes one feels freer speaking to a stranger than to people one knows. Why is that?
Probably because a stranger sees us the way we are, not as he wished to think we are.”
Adopted from one of this best-selling move, The Shadows of the Wind, Carlos talks about human emotions and the way they are perceived in society. This very book got Zafon his international fame.
Similarly, it also became the first book of his Cemetry of Forgotten Books trilogy; that concluded with the 2016’s The Labyrinth of Spirits.
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Also, Carlos’s eight novels have been translated into more than 40 languages all around the world. His works have sold more than 38 million worldwide.
Just from this, we can see the impact Zafon had in the Spanish literary world. And indeed, his death is a loss of one of the world’s “best contemporary novelists” to admirers and us of his work.
The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sanchez tweeted mourning his death as well.
“We have lost one of the world’s most-read and most admired Spanish writers. Carlos Ruiz Zafon a key novelist of our epoch, made a significant contribution to modern literature.”
Even his English publisher Weidenfeld & Nicolson said it was “deeply saddened to hear of Carlos’s passing.”
Carlos Ruiz Zafon felt he had “no other choice but to be a writer.”
Born in 1964, the later author grew up in Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia Basilica. In his early years, he worked in advertising before making his debut as an author in 1993. His debut work, The Prince of Mist, won several awards, setting himself as a contender in the literary world.
Likewise, in 1990, Zafon moved to Los Angeles and devoted his time to literature, dividing his time between Spain and the States. After ten years into the literature world, Zafon wrote ‘The Shadows of the Wind’ wanting to create a more intense reading experience for the readers.
Three more novels followed his best-selling novel; The Angel’s Game, The Prisoner of Heaven and The Labyrinth of Spirits completing a trilogy.
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Upon finishing the series, Carlos described the series as “books about my inner world, writing and reading… I wanted to explore the creative process of storytelling, and this allowed me to understand many things about myself. I do not know if I am wiser, but I feel more at peace with myself.”
Moreover, in an essay, Carlos Ruiz Zafon wrote what he felt about his career. He said he had no other choice but to be a writer.
“Sometimes people ask me what piece of advice I would give to an aspiring author. I’d tell them that you should only become a writer if the possibility of not becoming one would kill you.”
To this, he added,
“Otherwise, you’d be better off doing something else. I became a writer, a teller of tales, because otherwise, I would have died, or worse.”
Fans are pouring their hearts on Twitter
“A story is a letter that the author writes to himself, to tell himself things that he would be unable to discover otherwise.”
RIP #CarlosRuizZafon pic.twitter.com/kHH9QZgbSW— Wulf Dorn (@WulfDorn) June 19, 2020
#CarlosRuizZafón has certainly left a mark on millions of readers around the world. #RIP. pic.twitter.com/bVef9Q7Rw1
— Antoine Online (@Antoine_Online) June 19, 2020
“As long as we are being remembered, we remain alive.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafon
_________#CarlosRuizZafon, the Spanish author of internationally bestselling novels including The Shadow of the Wind, has died at the age of 55.#PeykBookstore #PeykPlus pic.twitter.com/ag4d5vDmp6
— Peyk Books (@PeykBooks) June 19, 2020
