The Shadow of the Wind (La sombra del viento) by Carlos Ruiz Zafón is one of
the best books I've ever read! I can't believe it didn't make Amazon.ca's
"Best of 2004". (And I can't believe Muriella Pent of all things was #1!)
The Shadow of the Wind one of the few mysteries (it's not a traditional
mystery in the sense of detectives and stuff, but it's definitely a
mystery!) I've read recently where you actually don't know "whodunit" until
the end. And even if you do manage to guess who, there's the whole tragic
tale of why.

I ended up reading this in English because the library didn't appear to have
the Spanish version (which is surprising, considering how popular the
Spanish version is). However, I'm glad I did read it in English because it
was such a page turner - I wanted to badly to know what happened next - and
I read faster in English than in Spanish. I will definitely be reading it
again, and maybe even in Spanish.

Highly recommended!