The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafon - Review

It is 1943 when the Carver family move to a beach house in a small town on the coast to get away from the city and the war. It’s a beautiful place – full of secrets – but strange things start to happen: they adopt a malevolent cat, his sister has an accident, the other sister has unsettling dreams, they find a sunken ship, and he finds a sinister garden of statues that seem to call him. Not to forget the spirit of a boy who drowned there, the story of the lone survivor of a terrible storm, and the Prince of Mist.

This beautifully written, increasingly creepy story is Zafon’s first novel. It’s a haunting coming of age tale of a summer Max will never forget. It has everything – adventure, danger, mystery, horror, a little romance, old debts, and unexplained death.

And, if you enjoy this as much as I did, read Shadow of the Wind, his extraordinary novel set in post war Barcelona, has become one of my very favorite books.