The Angel's Game

Faustian Bargains, Cursed Mansions, and the Fog-Bound Secrets of 1920s Barcelona

Spanning over eighteen haunting, atmospheric hours, *The Angel’s Game* is Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s magnificent prequel-companion to The Shadow of the Wind, returning listeners to the fog-shrouded labyrinths of Barcelona in the turbulent 1920s. The narrator is David Martín, an impoverished, terminally ill young writer churning out lurid pulp crime serials under a pseudonym in a decaying newsroom. Living in a sinister gothic tower house with a gruesome history, David is approached by Andreas Corelli—an aristocratic Parisian publisher bearing a winged angel brooch, who makes him an astonishing Faustian offer: a fortune in gold to write a sacred book capable of creating a new world religion.

After accepting the Faustian bargain, David’s fatal brain tumor mysteriously vanishes, but a waking nightmare takes its place. As he toils over the hallucinatory manuscript, everyone connected to his life begins dying in gruesome, inexplicable ways, while police inspectors close in. Seeking sanctuary within the hidden vault of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, David discovers that the previous resident of his tower house made the exact same pact decades earlier with horrifying consequences. Zafón’s prose—translated with lyrical elegance by Lucia Graves—is drenched in melancholic gothic dread, exploring obsession, literary hubris, and the razor-thin boundary between genius and madness.

Narrator Daniel Weyman delivers an extraordinary vocal performance, voicing David’s descending psychological sanity and Corelli’s chilling, velvet-toned menace with hypnotic virtuosity. His tender handling of David’s spirited young assistant Isabella (who will become the mother of Daniel Sempere) provides heartwarming emotional warmth against the creeping shadows. For listeners who revere atmospheric Magical Realism and dark gothic mysteries, this eighteen-hour audio journey is an absolute masterpiece.

The Cemetery of Forgotten Books Reading Order: • The Shadow of the Wind (Book 1 – 17h 13m) • The Angel's Game (Book 2 – 18h 15m) • The Prisoner of Heaven (Book 3 – 8h 30m) • The Labyrinth of the Spirits (Book 4 – 28h 15m)