Holed up in an abandoned mansion in the heart of Barcelona, pulp fiction writer David Martin bangs out story after story, becoming ever more desperate and frustrated. Approached by a shady publisher with a book-writing deal too good to be true, David nevertheless leaps at the offer. But in this prequel to Carlos Ruiz Zafón's phenomenally popular?The Shadow of the Wind, David's encounter with the mysterious collection called the Cemetery of Forgotten Books makes him wonder if there is a connection between his new assignment and the specters that surround his dilapidated home—and if the publisher may be hiding secrets of his own.