MARINA

CARLOS RUIZ ZAFN

Introduction

I think all readers, we remember with some nostalgia or affection some books and go on
to become our favorites.
Those books, that when you finish reading them, leaving a small footprint inside us.
In my case, Marina is one of those books, there is why i chosee it.
I discovered this book and this author thanks to my godmother, she borrow me the book and I loved it.
After this book I have read all the books of this author and each has been better than the last.

Bigraphy
Carlos Ruiz Zafon is a Spanish writer, author of many books bestseller.
He began his literary career in 1993 with juvenile literature:
- The Prince of Mist (Edeb Award)
following by

- The Midnight Palace

- The Lights of September
- Marine.
In 2001 his first adult novel is published
which plunges us into the universe of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books
This trilogy consists of:

- The wind's shadow

- The Angel's Game (2008)
- The Prisoner of Heaven (2011).
His books have been translated into more than fifty languages and have won numerous
awards and millions of readers on 5 continents

About the novel

Marina is the fourth and final juvenil novel writer's work.
It was published in 1999.
Has an excepcional atmospher sometimes terrifying, sometimes romantic.
The novel occurs in Barcelona in the 50s
Is narrated by the voice of his protagonist. Oscar Dari.
Marina is possibly the most personal book he has done.
With an increble Gothic style.

Characters.

Oscar:

He is a fifteen year old boy, is shy, happy and fun who likes to explore Barcelona.
He studied at boarding school and is the best and only friend Marina.
Marine:
She is outgoing and intelligent girl of fifteen. He lives in an older home (a old palace)
with his father German.
She is the best friend of Oscar.
German:
Marina's father, is a man of forty-five.
He was a great painter. Always speak with respect and is very polite.
Mikhail Kolvenik:
He was a designer of orthopedic pieces.
Years later became a psychopath, a physical abomination and mentally.
Are sick, can only survive with a drug that he creates based butterflies "Teufel".
Eva Irinova:
Known as "the woman in the cemetery."
She was an opera singer and married Mijail.
Had an accident when someone threw corrosive acid to the face.
Kafka:
Bleu family cat (Marian and German). Hates Oscar.
Shelley:
Ex- doctor Mijail (Adoptive father of Maria.)
Mary Shelley:
Daughter of Eve and Mijail. (Adoptive daughter Selly). (he was a friend of Mijail)
Victor Florian:
Ex police inspector.

Better start now

"Fifteen years later, the memory of that day has come back to me. I've seen this boy
wandering into the mists of the France station and the name of Marina has been
rekindled as a fresh wound. We all have a secret locked up in the attic of the soul. This
one is mine".
This is the way the Marina story begins

Star
Every afternoon after finishing classes in the boarding Oscar goes to explore the streets
of Barcelona.
One day, Oscar, found an old mansion like a palace, and attracted to it, she decides to
go to take a look. There he will find a gold watch that stays accidentally when he flees
after take fright.

Days later Oscar returns home to return the watch and meet Marina, German and Kafka.
Oscar and Marina become friends and in one of his many trips around the city, Marina
takes him to a cemetery where they discover a headstone unnamed Only with a strange
black butterfly, where a mysterious woman goes each month to leave a red rose .
They also discover a chilling greenhouse, full of incomplete figures of wood, metal and
ceramics, Fleeing they realized that they had life and were made with human skin and
bone.
From there, his life changed forever when I discovered a past history which have revived
again ...
Development
Marina and German every week traveling to the city to see a doctor and left only Oscar
guarding the house and Kafka.
On his return Oscar and Mariana were talking to a retired police (Victor Florian) and after
following several clues knew the true story of Mikhail.
Mikhail had a twin brother who died at seven years by a genetic malformation. Mijail met
a doctor who raised him and taught him his craft. When the doctor died, Mikhail
experimented with human bodies and continued to do throughout his life trying to find a
solution for the disease she knew she was carrying. In Barcelona he met Eva and married
her.
Eva realized Mikhail was going crazy and thought that giving a child everything would
improve, but wrong. He was born a girl, Mary and Eve left the family doctor, Shelley for
the raise him as their own.
Mijail was reconstructed almost the entire body, he was a deformed and crazy person, so
they locked him in a tower of the house.
A year later he reappeared and Mijail use his daughter to survive, then killed her and
went after Eve, who had what he wanted, an elixir of black butterfly that would live
forever. Eva to prevent this, throw the elixir and provoked a fire where she and Mikhail
died.
Outcome
Oscar and Marina were saved by luck.
but then he discovered that who was sick was not German, was Marina and she had little
time to live.
Since then he went every day to see her, when he left the boarding school.
Marina died,
German and Oscar never seen again, it was very painful for both.

Conclusion
The end is, in my opinion, the best.

Although it is a sad ending, without hope an ending that leave you speechless and
imposible to forget.
"Sometimes I doubt my memory and I wonder if I'll be able to remember only what never
happened"
Marina you took all the answers with you

I hope you can and want read this book.

I would highly recommend.