Irony
"'It's the name of one of the character's in The Shadow of the Wind, the last of Carax's novels.' ...'In the novel Lain Coubert is the name used by the devil'"(70)
In the beginning of the novel, Daniel discovers that Julian Carax's novels are all being burned by the mysterious Lain Coubert. The use of the name Lain Coubert by the book burner is very ironic, considering that it is the name of the devil in Julian Carax's The Shadow of the Wind. The individual chooses to use the name of the one of Carax's character's, more specifically a villain, to burn Carax's novels.