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
Vivid and unforgettable.
Packed with every Gothic excess - freak-show photography, severed artificial hands, even evil butterflies - but Oscar's growing infatuation gives it depth and unity
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