Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Penguin Books, translated by Lucia Graves, 2004.

This is a good thriller set in Barcelona, and touching on love, idealism, power, and books.

The story starts out feeling like a literary mystery, perhaps with a touch of magical realism ala Borges’ Library. However, it rather quickly becomes a mystery involving an author, a boy who gradually falls deep into a story that involves him and his friends in a recapitulation of history.