Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Carlos Ruiz Zafón was born in Barcelona in 1964, and according to himself, he had known that he wanted to be a writer from around the age of 5 or 6. However, he has never been sure as to where this early vocation had come from. His family had no literary tradition - his mother a home-owner and his father a successful security agent - although he said the world of reading and books was important in their household.

He went to the Jesuit-run San Ignacio de Sarrià School and then went to study Information Science. During his first year of study, he was offered a job to work in the world of publicity. He eventually became the creative director of an important publicity agency in Barcelona, but in 1992, he decided to abandon that world to concentrate on literature instead.

Beginning with children's literature, Carlos Ruiz Zafón's first novel, El príncipe de la Niebla, was published in 1993 and was a success, winning the Edebé Prize. With the money earned from this book, he decided to realize his childhood dream: to go to Los Angeles and see the home of the cinema. He spent a number of years in the United States writing scripts while releasing a few new novels. 

The three following novels by Ruiz Zafón have also aimed at young readers: El Palacio de la medianoche (1994), Las Luces de Septiembre (1995) (these two books form part of the trilogy that starts with his first novel. Today, they are often published as one volume), and Marina.

However, the transformation of the Spanish novelist into a best-seller came in 2001 with the publication of his first novel aimed at adults: La Sombra del Viento - a complex story within a story set in post-Civil War Barcelona. This novel was translated into a number of different languages. Although it had a slow and difficult start in Spain, it soon became one of the biggest-selling Spanish language books in the world (selling over 10 million copies), thanks to the global market. It has also received a number of prizes over the years.

Despite the numerous offers that he has received, Carlos Ruiz Zafón has so far refrained from allowing a film version of the book to be made. He insists that he does not need the money and that no physical film could be better than the image one sees when reading the book.

Ruiz Zafón's second novel aimed at adults, El Juego del ángel, came out in 2008 and was another success for the contemporary Spanish novelist. The launch of the book was accompanied by a large campaign with guests, reporters, and TV cameras. If you had been lucky enough to visit Barcelona at this time, you would have seen long queues of people waiting to get the book and start reading. In fact, over 250,000 copies were sold in Catalonia alone in the first week.