The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #2
The Angel's Game
by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Contents
Act One - City of the Damned — Chapter 1
Overview
Seventeen-year-old Martín is unexpectedly commissioned to replace a fallen-through Sunday feature. Under intense deadline pressure, he produces a gripping story that Don Basilio accepts and publishes, paying him and assigning him to the crime beat. Pedro Vidal reaffirms his mentorship with a celebratory gift, cementing Martín’s literary beginnings.
Summary
In December 1917, seventeen-year-old Martín, a junior at The Voice of Industry, is summoned by the hard-edged deputy editor, Don Basilio Moragas. With a scheduled Sunday feature missing and deadline looming, Don Basilio—nudged by star writer Pedro Vidal’s praise—offers Martín a chance to fill the back page.
Don Basilio demands an original, readable story within six hours and promises payment if it’s decent. Martín settles at Pedro Vidal’s desk and, through the night, wrestles a crime-laced tale onto the page, driven by ambition and fear of failure as the newsroom clock counts down.
At dawn, Don Basilio reads the piece, then orders it set for print and pays Martín ten pesetas, advising him to smarten his appearance and prepare another story. He assigns Martín a desk and places him on the crime beat, warning that journalism is a training ground rather than Martín’s ultimate path.
Overwhelmed with gratitude, Martín accepts the charge. The following Monday he finds his story framed with a note from Pedro Vidal proclaiming this as only the beginning, sealing both Martín’s first publication and the mentorship shaping his rise.
Who Appears
- MartínSeventeen-year-old junior at The Voice of Industry; writes a last-minute story that launches his career.
- Don Basilio MoragasDeputy editor; challenges, edits, and ultimately publishes Martín’s story, assigning him to the crime beat.
- Pedro VidalStar writer and mentor; champions Martín, enabling the chance, and gifts a framed copy of the published story.