Sorry, I intended to post this earlier... Those of you who enjoy his books, may find this interesting.

Several weeks ago Carlos Ruiz Zafon came to Seattle to promote his new book, The Angel's Game, and I went to see him at the Seattle Public Library Central branch. He was interviewed by the Seattle Times book editor (a woman, I don't remember her name), who had some questions prepared (she had read the book already). He answered in depth, so the presentation was about 1.5 hr. His answers didn't focus on the book as such, but went beyond this particular book. He seems a very intelligent and well read person, but down to earth.

Interesting points of the interview:

The book editor brought up the point that in the new book, as well as in The Shadow of the Wind, Barcelona is one of the main characters. He explained that having been born and raised there, he is very familiar with the city. His father sold insurance door to door, and when the author was in his teens, he often would go with him, visiting all sectors of the city. They would go inside the homes of rich and modest people, so he got to see the life of the city from the inside. He said this experience remained with him, and he still uses it when writing.

The Shadow of the Wind was looked down by Spanish publishers initially, no one but the author had faith in the book. When it became such a bestseller in Spain, the publishers could hardly believe it. In other European countries, the publishers had a much better opinion of the book from the beginning, he said.

When asked if he thinks books will disappear--Kindle and e-books were mentioned-- it seems to him that that is mainly an American concern, that he has not heard anyone worried about this in Europe or other publishing markets.

Most of the time, authors and editors are approached by publishers in other countries about a translation. Not with The Shadow of the Wind. Mr Ruiz Zafon and his publisher were approached directly by several Spanish-to-English translators. They asked each translator to submit a sample of a particular chapter. In his own words: "what they submitted was a disaster". I must say here that his English is very good, so he can tell. Lucia Graves had talked to him before this, in a sort of casual way, told him she liked the book a lot, and said she would be interested in translating it. She is the daughter of Robert Graves, translator and writer, and Mr Ruiz Zafon explained she was raised in Spain. Well, after their disappointment by the other translators' samples, he said: "Let's talk to Lucia". His words: "What she did was far from perfect, but much better than what we had seen so far, and she said: 'I know this is not that good, I know I can improve it'. " So they gave her the book, and she would translate part of it, bring it back to him, he would go over it with her, make some changes, and she would say: "Oh, I see what you want...". Eventually she got the hang of...