Book: Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Eleanor Oliphant is polite, intelligent and methodical. But her ignorance of social norms is disconcerting. The crossword-loving office loner is the unreliable narrator of Gail Honeyman's Costa-winning debut novel and it is soon painfully obvious that everything is not completely fine. It takes a friendly IT department colleague to set Oliphant down the road to discuss the (forgive my pun) elephant in the room. This is a heartwarming novel despite its sombre themes and much of Honeyman's humour comes from her oblivious protagonist's descriptions of commonplace 21st-century behaviour (Cue LOLs and names written on coffee chain cups). Looking forward to watching the Hollywood movie adaptation produced by Reese Witherspoon.

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Book: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

With "La sombra del viento" (The Shadow of the Wind), his first novel for adults, Carlos Ruiz Zafón established himself as a master storyteller. The 2001 novel, translated into English three years later by the daughter of writer Robert Graves, is a Gothic masterpiece set in mid-20th century Barcelona. The novel about a boy's search for a mysterious author whose books were destroyed is a haunting tale of doomed love that hooks you from the first page.

I set myself the challenge of reading the Spanish original and the English translation concurrently. At nearly 600 pages apiece, this was a task that involved looking up the dictionary a lot. Mission accomplished - some three months later. And I discovered that Lucia Graves had achieved something few translators can - capture the magic of the original. Author Zafón has stipulated that none of his books be adapted for the big screen. Which is a pity because "La sombra del viento" would have been a spellbinding film.

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