Teachers' Notes for The Prince of Mist - Orion Books

THE PRINCE OF MIST by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

A haunting story for the young, and the young at heart by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, bestselling author of The Shadow of the Wind

TEACHERS’ NOTES The Prince of Mist was the first novel published by the internationally bestselling author of The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, and marked the beginning of his career as a writer in 1992. Translated for the first time into English, it is a thrilling read for the young, and the young at heart, and can serve as a wonderful tool in creative writing classes for Key Stage 3 pupils.

© Jordi Belver

MEET THE AUTHOR Carlos Ruiz Zafón was born in Barcelona and grew up near Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia cathedral. He has been obsessed since childhood with telling stories in any way possible and has worked as a screenwriter in Los Angeles. He started his fiction writing career with four novels for young adults, the first of which was The Prince of Mist, first published in 1992 in Spain and now translated into English. He is best known for his first novel for adults, The Shadow of the Wind, which is the most successful novel in Spanish publishing history after Don Quixote. It is the first in a planned quartet of literary thrillers centred around a mysterious Cemetery of Forgotten Books: a secret library hidden in a palace in Barcelona. The second novel in the quartet, The Angel’s Game, was

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The Prince of Mist - Teachers’ Notes

the fastest-selling book of all time in Spain and was published in the UK last year. Carlos’s work has been translated into more than 35 languages and has received numerous international awards. The books celebrate reading and writing, and Carlos believes that books have a special experience to offer, despite the many other entertainment choices that exist today. In his own words, ‘I am in the business of storytelling. I always have been, always will be. It is what I’ve been doing since I was a kid. Telling stories, making up tales, bringing life to characters, devising plots, visualising scenes.

SYNOPSIS Like The Shadow of the Wind, The Prince of Mist is set in the 1940s. Max is aged 13 in 1943, when his father – a watchmaker and inventor – decides to move his family to a small town on the coast to escape the war. They move into an abandoned house built for the family of a prestigious surgeon, Dr Richard Fleischmann, whose only son has recently drowned. Behind the house Max spies an overgrown garden surrounded by a metal fence topped with a six-pointed star. When he goes to investigate, Max finds a troupe of statues, in the centre of which is the large statue of a clown set in another six-pointed star. Max has the curious sensation that the statue is beckoning to him. The family grows increasingly uneasy when they discover a box of old films belonging to the Fleischmanns and Max’s sister Alicia has unsettling dreams while little Irina hears voices whispering to her from an old wardrobe. But Max spends most of his time with his new friend Roland, who takes him diving to the wreck of a boat that sank close to the coast in a terrible storm. Everyone on board perished except for one man – an engineer who built the lighthouse at the end of the beach. During the dive, Max sees something that leaves him cold – on the mast floats a tattered flag and on it is the symbol of the circle and six-pointed star. As they learn more about the wreck, the chilling story of a legendary figure called the Prince of Mist begins to emerge. . .




TALKING POINTS PERFECT PLACE Carlos’s novels have a very strong sense of place: you can walk around the setting of The Shadow of the Wind in old Barcelona while The Prince of Mist is set in a small seaside town. Think about the following: • What sort of image of the town does he create in the novel? Are you able to imagine what it would be like from his description? How does he do this? • Draw a map of the town showing all the key locations on land and just off the coast. • Carlos does not name the town or say which country it is in. What effect does this have on the reader? CIRCUS ACTS The Prince of Mist introduces circus characters and entertainers as disturbing and dangerous figures. • Write a short story in which a clown or a fortune teller does something unexpected (in a good or bad way). THE SISTER’S TALE • Max’s sister Alicia experiences the summer in a very different way to him. How do we know that she is troubled in the early chapters of the book? • Write a diary of events through the summer as they affect Alicia. NOVELS IN TRANSLATION In the past 15 years there has been an increase in the number of books for young readers published in translation in the UK, which have their own award, the Marsh Award. Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s adult novels have become famous outside Spain through translation: The Shadow of the Wind has been translated into 40 languages and published in 50 countries. Yet only two per cent of books published in the UK are in translation. • Why is it important that we read books in translation? • Think of some very famous children’s stories (start with stories that have been made into famous animated films) that we know through translation. They include most fairy tales and The One Thousand and One Nights.




LISTENING POINT Carlos is also a composer and keyboard player and likes to compose soundtracks for his readers to enjoy alongside the books. You can download his soundtrack for The Prince of Mist at www.carlosruizzafon.co.uk/prince-of-mist • Listen to the music before reading the book. What does it tell you about the story? • Choose your own tracks for various sections of The Prince of Mist: for example, the first time Max and Roland explore the Orpheus wreck; Irina’s accident; the boys’ final visit to the wreck. What qualities in the music have made it appropriate for that part of the book?

READ ON MORE BY CARLOS RUIZ ZAFÓN The Angel’s Game 9780753826492 The Shadow of the Wind 9780753820254 SOME MORE FICTION IN TRANSLATION TO ENJOY Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder, translated from the Norwegian by Paulette Moller (Phoenix) The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder, translated from the Norwegian by Sarah Jane Hails (Phoenix) The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaarder, translated from the Norwegian by Elizabeth Rokkan (Phoenix) Toby Alone by Timothée de Fombelle, translated from the French by Sarah Ardizzone (Walker Books) Just Like Tomorrow by Faïza Guène, translated from the French by Sarah Ardizzone (Penguin) Message in a Bottle by Valérie Zenatti, translated from the French by Adriana Hunter (Bloomsbury Publishing)

USEFUL LINKS

Author website – www.carlosruizzafon.co.uk/prince-of-mist

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