Carlos Ruiz Zafón (1964–2020) was a Spanish novelist best known for The Shadow of the Wind, the first novel in the internationally acclaimed Cemetery of Forgotten Books series. Born in Barcelona, he began his career in advertising before turning to fiction. His early novels were written for young readers, including The Prince of Mist, which won Spain’s Edebé Prize for young adult literature in 1993. Zafón achieved worldwide fame with The Shadow of the Wind, published in Spain in 2001 and later translated into dozens of languages. Set largely in postwar Barcelona, his novels combine Gothic mystery, historical fiction, romance, suspense, and metafictional reflections on books and storytelling. Other novels in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books cycle include The Angel’s Game, The Prisoner of Heaven, and The Labyrinth of the Spirits. He lived for many years in Los Angeles, where he worked on screenplays while continuing to write fiction. Zafón died in Los Angeles in 2020 from colorectal cancer. His work has sold millions of copies worldwide and established him as one of the most widely read Spanish-language novelists of his generation.
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