We all have a secret buried under lock and key in the attic of our soul. This is mine . . .
In May 1980, 15-year-old Óscar Drai suddenly vanishes from his boarding school in the old quarter of Barcelona. For seven days and nights no one knows his whereabouts . . .
His story begins in the heart of old Barcelona, when he meets Marina and her father German Blau, a portrait painter. Marina takes Óscar to a cemetery and at 10 am, a coach pulled by horses appears. From it descends a woman dressed in black, her face shrouded, wearing gloves, holding a single rose. She walks over to a gravestone that bears no name, only the mysterious emblem of a black butterfly with open wings.
When Óscar and Marina decide to follow her they begin a journey that will take them to the heights of a forgotten, post-war Barcelona, a world of aristocrats and actresses, inventors and tycoons; and a dark secret that lies waiting in the mysterious labyrinth beneath the city streets.
From the bestselling author of THE SHADOW OF THE WIND comes a haunting gothic mystery – now an international BookTok sensation.
In May 1980, 15-year-old Óscar Drai suddenly vanishes from his boarding school in the old quarter of Barcelona. For seven days and nights no one knows his whereabouts . . .
His story begins in the heart of old Barcelona, when he meets Marina and her father German Blau, a portrait painter. Marina takes Óscar to a cemetery and at 10 am, a coach pulled by horses appears. From it descends a woman dressed in black, her face shrouded, wearing gloves, holding a single rose. She walks over to a gravestone that bears no name, only the mysterious emblem of a black butterfly with open wings.
When Óscar and Marina decide to follow her they begin a journey that will take them to the heights of a forgotten, post-war Barcelona, a world of aristocrats and actresses, inventors and tycoons; and a dark secret that lies waiting in the mysterious labyrinth beneath the city streets.
From the bestselling author of THE SHADOW OF THE WIND comes a haunting gothic mystery – now an international BookTok sensation.
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Reviews
A magical, gothic tale
Readers who loved Zafron's The Shadow of the Wind will find shades of that magical bestseller in this gothic tale that's so elegantly told
Packed with every Gothic excess - freak-show photography, severed artificial hands, even evil butterflies - but Oscar's growing infatuation gives it depth and unity
Vivid and unforgettable.