Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marina | 1999 | Carlos Ruiz Zafon | Buy |
Marina (1999) is a standalone novel by Carlos Ruiz Zafon set in 1980s Barcelona. The story follows Oscar Drai, a boarding school student who meets a girl named Marina and is pulled into a mystery involving a disappeared inventor and his eerie creations. The book has the Gothic atmosphere and Barcelona setting that would define Zafon’s later Cemetery of Forgotten Books series.
Marina sits between Zafon’s YA Niebla trilogy and his adult masterpiece The Shadow of the Wind, both in publication date and in tone. It was one of his most popular books in Spain before his international breakthrough.