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Could this be what you are referring to?   The novel, set in post–Spanish Civil War Barcelona, concerns a young boy, Daniel Sempere. Just after the war, Daniel's father takes him to the secret Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a huge library of old, forgotten titles lovingly preserved by a select few initiates. According to tradition, everyone initiated to this secret place is allowed to take one book from it and must protect it for life. Daniel selects a book called The Shadow of the Wind by Julián Carax. That night he takes the book home and reads it, completely engrossed. Daniel then attempts to look for other books by this unknown author but can find none. All he comes across are stories of a strange man – calling himself Laín Coubert, after a character in the book who happens to be the Devil – who has been seeking out Carax's books for decades, buying them all and burning them.

The novel is actually a story within a story. The boy, Daniel Sempere, in his quest to discover Julian's other works, becomes involved in tracing the entire history of Carax. His friend Fermin Romero de Torres, who was imprisoned and tortured in Montjuic Castle for having been involved in an espionage against the Anarchists during the war – himself being a government intelligence agent – helps Daniel in a number of ways, but their probing into the murky past of a number of people who have either been long dead or long forgotten unleashes the dark forces of the murderous Inspector Fumero.

Thus, unravelling a long story that has been buried within the depths of oblivion, Daniel and Fermin come across a love story, the beautiful, yet doomed love story of Julian and Penelope, both of whom seem to having been missing since 1919 – that is, nearly thirty years earlier. Julian, who was the son of the hatter Antoni Fortuny and his wife Sophie Carax (but preferred to use his mother's last name) and Penelope Aldaya, the only daughter of the extremely rich and wealthy Don Ricardo Aldaya and his beautiful and narcissistic American wife, developed an instant love for each other, carried out a clandestine relationship only through casual furtive glances and faint smiles for around four years, after which they decided to elope to Paris, little knowing that the shadows of misfortune had been closing upon them ever since they met. The two lovers are doomed to unknown fates just a week before their supposed elopement, which was meticulously planned by Julian's best friend, Miquel Moliner – also the son of a wealthy father, who had earned much during the war including an ill reputation of selling ammunition. It is eventually revealed that Miquel loved Julian more than any brother and finally sacrificed his own life for him, having already abandoned all his wishes and youth towards lost causes of charity and his friend's well-being after his elopement to Paris, nevertheless without Penelope, who never turned up for the rendezvous. Penelope's memories keep burning Julian and this eventually forces him to return to Barcelona, in the mid 1950s, however he encounters the harshest truth about Penelope, who had just been nothing more than a memory for those who knew her, for she had never been seen or heard of again by anyone after 1919.

Characters

Daniel Sempere - The main character of the story. Son of a bookshop owner. After visiting the Cemetery of Forgotten Books and picking out The Shadow of the Wind by Julián Carax, Daniel learns that he should treasure this book because a mysterious figure has been searching for all of Carax's books, and subsequently burning them. After reading the book, Daniel becomes obsessed with its elusive author. What he doesn't realize is that there's more to the story than he could ever dream.