It is with a heavy heart that I share with you the news that prolific novelist, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, has passed away from colon cancer at age 55 in Los Angeles. We shared a name, hometown, love of history, and current city of Los Angeles, his genius will be deeply missed. Here are some much deserved praises of Carlos Ruiz Zafón:
The most-read Spanish author since Cervantes, his international best seller, La sombra del viento (The Shadow of the Wind), released in 2001, has sold more than fifteen million copies, and is considered the most widespread Spanish novel after Don Quixote.
Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish prime minister, tweeted: “We have lost one of the world’s most read and most admired Spanish writers. Carlos Ruiz Zafón, a key novelist of our epoch, made a significant contribution to modern literature.”
Calling him “one of the best contemporary novelists”, his publisher, Planeta, quoted from his most famous book, The Shadow of the Wind, a literary thriller about a library of obscure titles: “Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it.”
In an essay reflecting on his career, Ruiz Zafón wrote that he felt 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. 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.”
You can read more here:
(In Spanish) - https://www.lavanguardia.com/cultura/20200619/481773551925/muere-carlos-ruiz-zafon-la-sombra-del-viento-escritor-libros.html
(In English) - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-spain-people-zafon/carlos-ruiz-zafon-author-of-the-shadow-of-the-wind-dies-aged-55-idUSKBN23Q23W