Marina
-
-
5.0 • 1 Rating
-
-
- $21.99
-
- $21.99
Publisher Description
A gothic tale for readers of all ages from the author of the bestselling The Shadow of the Wind.
Barcelona, 1980. Oscar Drai finds himself drawn to an old dilapidated mansion where he meets the captivating and elusive Marina. She leads him to the cemetery to witness a mysterious ritual: on the fourth Sunday of every month, a veiled woman alights from a carriage and lays a single rose on an unmarked grave.
Oscar and Marina are swept on a journey into the city's dark underground of labyrinthine sewers, corrupt policemen, ageing aristocrats, forgotten societies and criminal depravity...to a sinister tale of love, ambition and jealousy that will hold Oscar's heart forever.
Carlos Ruiz Zafon was born in Barcelona. He is one of the world's most read and best-loved writers. His work has been translated into more than forty languages, garnering numerous international prizes and reaching millions of readers. Marina was first published in Spanish in 1999, this is the first time it has been published in English.
textpublishing.com.au
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In a novel first published in Spain in 1999, Zaf n (The Midnight Palace) transports readers to 1979 Barcelona, where 15-year-old Oscar Drai lives a dreary boarding school life. That's until he meets a girl named Marina, who takes him to an old cemetery where a cloaked woman conducts an odd ritual over a nameless grave. Soon they uncover a twisted tale of hereditary disease, murder, and horrible experiments, all of which took place years ago and whose central figures are dead. Or are they? Zaf n is a master of both the subtle simile ("A strange sound throbbed in the darkness. A metallic murmur, like the sound of a venetian blind quivering") and the outrageous image: "The light filtering down from above revealed the face of a harlequin. Two diamond shapes covered its glassy eyes, and steel fangs protruded from its lips of polished wood." On a rational level, the tale, like many Gothic thrillers, is preposterous, but readers are never given time to think rationally. Unlikely discoveries in mysterious, half-ruined mansions alternate with spine-tingling action sequences to create a grotesquerie that will delight horror fans. Ages 12 up.
