The Shadow of the Wind: An Empty Plate: Chapter 10 Summary & Analysis

In his office, Isaac says that he first heard of Carax from his friend Toni Cabestany, a Spanish publisher who bought the rights to Carax’s books when they weren’t selling well in Paris. Even though Carax’s books failed on the Spanish market as well and didn’t make money, Cabestany continued to publish them. Eventually, Cabestany died and his sons inherited the company. One day, a man named Laín Coubert arrived and offered to buy all the copies of Carax’s work at a generous price. Daniel notes that this is the name Carax gives to the devil in The Shadow of the Wind. The greedy son asked for more money, but instead the man burned down the entire warehouse the next night. However, just before the warehouse burned, the company secretary saved a copy of each of Carax’s books. The secretary is Nuria, Isaac’s daughter, and Isaac says she has “a fondness for lost causes” and was friends with Carax.

Daniel asks about Carax’s family, and Isaac says that the parents were separated for unknown reasons. His mother moved to South America and Carax was estranged from his father, Fortuny, who owns a hat shop, by the time he moved to Paris.

Daniel suggests that if he wasn’t close to his family Carax might have visited Nuria when he returned to Barcelona, but Isaac says he wouldn’t know. Because Nuria won’t say much about her friendship with Carax, he suspects that that they were sleeping together; he thinks Carax is a “scoundrel” for this reason.

The books that Nuria took from the factory are now hidden at the Cemetery, because a few days after she stole them she noticed a strange man following her and deduced that it was Coubert. She hid the books without telling anyone where they were, intending to retrieve them once she located Carax. However, she has never come back for them.

Daniel asks if he can talk to Nuria, and Isaac admits that his own relationship with his daughter is rocky. He believes she’s married to someone named Miquel, but she never told him personally or invited him to the wedding. Daniel wonders aloud if Nuria still thinks about Carax, and Isaac says that while he doesn’t know, he himself often thinks of his first love, who died of tuberculosis before they could marry. He believes Carax hurt his daughter, and will never forgive him for that.

Daniel enters the labyrinth to hide the novel, imagining Nuria doing the same thing years ago. Isaac advises him to make notches in the wood shelves to remind himself where the book is, and Daniel eventually hides it among a dusty collection of philosophical treatises. As he leaves he feels sad for the loss of the book and thinks about the enormity of knowledge contained in the Cemetery, which can never be fully understood.

When Daniel returns home, he finds Mr. Sempere still dressed and smoking in his armchair. Daniel refuses to say exactly where he’s been all night, but his father seems resigned and urges him to open his birthday present. He has bought Daniel the fountain pen that he craved so much as a child. Daniel is touched both by the thoughtfulness of the gift and by his father’s evident happiness at seeing him open it.