Having polished off the last of Ruiz Zafon’s “Cemetery of Forgotten Books” tetralogy, I decided to reread the first, “Shadow of the Wind,” in Spanish. Lucia Graves is a brilliant translator, but my god is the original prose miles better. And I loved it in English.
Among other things, the first line of the first book is a naked Marquez riff that I somehow missed reading it in English.
Actually the middle two books would probably benefit most. The first sold itself on plot when I thought the prose was workmanlike. The 2nd & 3rd didn’t really, and would be different animals if they’re this well written.
