Welcome to the home thread for Marina! We are reading this as part of the Spanish Fiction Bookclub.
Marina is a young adult novel by the author Carlos Ruiz Zafón, who later shot to fame with his novel La sombra del viento (The Shadow of the Wind).
Click the link below to see the Natively page for this novel.
How it works
All the discussion for this book will take place in this thread. We will decide on a reading speed and schedule. Anyone is welcome to grab a copy of the book and read along, either following the schedule or at your own pace. We will share our thoughts on the story, the language, any questions about the text etc.
50 pages a week for 6 weeks should work well for me, provided that the book isn’t crazy difficult. I’m happy to start next week or the week after. I just need to order the book in from my local library.
Got my copy yesterday, so I’m good to start next week or whenever.
Pacing sounds good to me. But knowing myself, I may get distracted and fall off track. Haven’t done one of these book clubs before, but hopefully the social aspect will encourage me to stay on it.
I finished week one pages. Really enjoying this so far. Immediately felt very reminiscent of Shadow of the Wind, with beautiful prose, and Barcelona forming such a charming backdrop to the story.
We are in the western outskirts of Barcelona, not a part I’ve ever visited, although I have like many visited Parc Güell which is a little further north. From a quick google search the school Oscar attends doesn’t seem to be based on a real place (which is a shame as it sounds a fascinating place), but Sarrià and Paseo de la Bonanova are real places.
Story:
I enjoyed the accidental theft of the watch. I cringed as he knocked over the gramaphone and the record scratched. I quite liked that he was able to return the watch without much fuss, and that he didn’t get into trouble, but instead got on with his adventures with Marina (which presumably will lead him into some trouble…)
The greenhouse scene was really creepy. It had build up quite nicely as they found themselves in a fairly deserted area of old decaying mansions and overgrown gardens, following the mysterious cemetery visitor. Encountering all those half finished puppets in the darkness of the creepy greenhouse sounds genuinely frightening! Is there really someone watching them in the darkness? I’m looking forward to finding out what happens next!
Currently up to chapter 3. Haven’t gotten a lot of reading time so far this week, but hopefully I can catch up over the weekend.
I’m missing lots of words, but think I’m getting the gist.
Just before this I had read Principe de la Niebla, also from Zafón. Chapter 1 of Marina immediately reminded me of it - alarming cat, jardín (with a stone figure even), and a pocket watch all show up here and in that book.
I finally have the book in from the library! I just started the prologue but I like the writing style so far and I’m excited to read about Oscar and Marina’ story. It seems quite mysterious.
I enjoyed the prologue too. I liked the way it starts at the end, and immediately sets up this mystery of why he disappeared for a week, and how he ended up at the train station.
There are a couple of really nice sentences towards the end of the prologue:
No sabía entonces que el océano del tiempo tarde o temprano nos devuelve los recuerdos que enterramos en él.
And: Todos tenemos un secreto encerrado bajo llave en el ático del alma.
Chapter 6 kicked off with a beautiful sentence: La llovizna había vestido las calles de plata cuando salimos de allí. I liked that image of the streets being “clothed” in silver.
Next page - Oscar doesn’t know who Delibes is. “What do they teach you in school?” quips Marina. Sounds like an old lady!
I liked the images in the meal they had together. The faded grandeur, the porcelain dinner set, the silver - but no money to serve anything more than soup for dinner.
Finally, I liked the last sentence in this chapter too. Reflecting on the day - si se pudiese comprar un billete para repetirlo, lo habría hecho sin pensarlo dos veces.
Chapter 7
Maybe it’s because I just read a novel that was much more of a thriller, this book seems so gentle with its reveals. The voice on the record was Marina’s mother. The portraits that bear a resemblance to Marina’s are of course her mother. And the painter who hasn’t lifted a brush for many years, her grieving husband.
We caught a glimpse of the silhouette of a figure through the window, with a horrendous stench. Who is this mysterious character?
I looked up the phrase - que hace una noche de perros and found this reference: https://crossidiomas.com/noche-de-perros/ - in short a night that is particularly difficult or unpleasant, whether due to bad weather, troublesome events, or simply a feeling of unease. In context, Germán is referring to the bad weather.
Really enjoying this book and didn’t want to stop reading at the end of this week’s chapters.
I loved the two back story chapters - Germán and Mijail. Both set against the romantic backdrop of Barcelona. I liked the references to real places in Barcelona. Like in the Shadow of the Wind books, makes me excited to visit the city again one day!
I also enjoyed the growing friendship between Oscar, Marina and her father. We don’t know much of Oscar’s backstory, but he seemed lonely and now has a found family.
I’ve been so bad at keeping up. Just have not prioritized reading like I ought to. But I did finally round out that first section of reading.
Chapters 4 and 5 were really good.
Got a glimpse of the cover image. Then the greenhouse was really nailing creepy atmosphere. With how the characters reacted, I’d hate to see what else was in that photo album.
