Learn about the history of Carlos Ruiz Zafon, a Spanish author with several stories to tell and with different awards, discover that and more in this post.
Who was Carlos Ruiz Zafon?
He was a writer of great renown in Spain who managed to sell different copies of his books and, with this, win different prizes that would boost him in his journey as a writer. He was born on September 25 in Barcelona, specifically, Spain, being a great speaker and with descriptive skills at the time of writing that made him recognizable just by reading a fragment of his works.
The work that stood out among all was The Shadow of the Wind, a book that would be a complete saga of stories and that would be translated into different languages, with a total of 36 translations. The novel would be cataloged as one of the best of the time, earning a place in the hundred best books of the Spanish language in 25 years.
first moments
Born in Spain, in the city of Barcelona. His life would be very calm and without very tragic moments, his parents were together and his mother took care of him at home, when his father worked; Justo Ruiz Vigo and Fina Zafón were the names of the boy's father.
His primary and secondary studies would take place in a Jesuit school, which would provide him with religious knowledge and would give him the discipline he needs to build his stories. He would graduate from school and study Information Sciences at the university, a career that would culminate in his bachelor's degree.
After graduating, he would get the offer to be in the world of advertising, an offer that he would accept and that would allow him to have knowledge in the area. He worked for the McCan company, where, due to his knowledge and experience in advertising, he would be given the opportunity to work as Creative Director, which would allow him to grow and finish deciding what he wanted, writing and literature.
The change was sudden for his family, since there were no writers or any relationship with this world that had inspired him, however, his father was always a cultured man, who invited him to think more and go further. He always reminded her that knowledge and books were the key to success.
Carlos Ruiz Zafón, would embark on an artistic and writing career, where his goal would be to tell stories that would catch people as he felt trapped by what he read. He wrote "The Prince of the Fog", a novel that would not have much receptivity, but would have the attention of the critics and would be awarded and would obtain an economic prize.
start in writing
The prince of the fog, would be his first work that although it was not known, it would be his first step. With the prize of the literary contest, he managed to fulfill one of his goals and dreams; he traveled to Los Angeles, where he would stay until his death and, moreover, would consecrate his style and best moments of his work.
Zafón's work is influenced by cinema, since he was a great fan of movies and the content he saw in them. He got to write screenplays while residing in the city, but continued to write his own literary works.
In 1994 he published his second work "The Midnight Palace", which would be the continuation of the first and would begin his style of literary sagas. He would culminate the saga in 1995 with a novel called "the lights of September", a work that would give rise to the mist trilogy, a saga that, after his rise to fame, would be much loved by his fans.
The writer had his own writing method, which, inspired by film and how it's done, used the same structure to make a film. He used a method of pre-production, then production and, finally, editing or post-production.
His stories had a base, which could change, served to tell the story. When he began to write, he saw that he changed or what he stayed with, bringing with him literary changes or better approaches in the story and, he ends up, assembling everything and uniting it, seeing what works for him, what does not and, in that case, what could add.
The wind's shadow
The shadow of the wind, would be the work that would consecrate him as one of the best current writers in Spain. It would be announced in 2000 by the Fernando Lara Novel Prize.
The award would make the writer known, given that he would be one of the finalists. It did not gain its popularity at the time, the publisher that represented the award, Planeta, did not want to publish the book, however, due to the insistence of the critics they would end up doing it.
The novel arrived in Spain and would not be very popular, it would take time for it to be bought by many people. When the work had its boom, it was popularized throughout the world, being translated into more than 36 languages, not to mention that it sold 15 million copies, thus being one of the best-selling works in the world, which is native to Spain.
Different offers were made to the author to make a movie or series of his work, but he believed it was unnecessary. He felt that nothing would do justice to his work, that he could not give it the level or prestige it deserves to tell his story, he explained, that the book had enough to catch the viewer.
This book would be the beginning of a saga that would be known as "the cemetery of forgotten books", which would be his longest and most complete saga.
Last moments
One of his last works was "The Labyrinth of the Spirits", a work that would end his saga beginning in 2001. The author explained that the closure of his saga was everything he dreamed of, with many stories and content that would impress and captivate the reader.
The work managed to sell more than 700 thousand copies, which although it was not the same as in his first saga, it was greater than his last books sold. It was his dream come true, because he finished telling his story as he wanted and in the most complex way, being faithful to his style.
In 2028 he would be diagnosed with colon cancer, a disease that would affect him until the end of his days. He followed his residence in Los Angeles, where he would live his treatment and would stay until 2020, a fateful year, since he would die from his terrible illness on June 19, at just 55 years old.
Carlos Ruiz Zafón, was an author with complex and different works, he united the style of cinema with literature and took it to his books, writing until the end.
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