Book review

The Zahir

Author: Paulo Coelho

Genre: Novel

Publisher: Harper Perennial (Eng. Trans.)

Publication year: 2005

Pages: 336 (Paperback)

Available at: Crossword

Rating: ***** (5/5)

What is obsession? What is love? Are they two sides of the same coin? Or, are they so different that the mention of the former may seem like an insult to the latter? This is the dilemma addressed in this book by Paulo Coelho.

Zahir, in Arabic, means visible, present, or incapable of going unnoticed. It is someone or something, which once we have come into contact with them or it, gradually occupies our every thought, until we can think of nothing else. This can be considered either a state of holiness, or of madness.

The Zahir revolves around the narrator, a bestselling novelist. He enjoys all the privileges that money and celebrity bring. His wife of ten years, Esther, is a war correspondent who, despite of her professional success, and freedom from the conventional constrains of marriage, is facing an existential crisis. When she disappears with a friend, Mikhail, who may or may not be her lover, the police question the narrator.  He is suspected of foul play by the authorities and the press of having a role to play in the inexplicable disappearance of his wife from their Paris home. Was Esther kidnapped, killed or did she simply abandon a marriage that left her unfulfilled? 

The narrator does not have any answers, but he has many questions of his own.

He continues to try to keep the same life as when his wife was still around. But becomes preoccupied with finding out why she left. The insanity continues and becomes an obsession making even the most lighthearted tasks unfathomable. He reminds himself, of her support, which he at the time took for granted. She became the reason why he was now, a famous writer. In time he finds himself a girlfriend, whom loves him and hopes that perhaps one day, he will love her too. They become partners, supporting each other’s careers, but his fixation with The Zahir, becomes ever more intolerable.

Then one day Mikhail, the man with whom Esther was last seen, finds the narrator, and promises to take him to his wife. In his attempt to find a love lost, the narrator discovers something unexpected about himself.

A haunting and redemptive tale of love and marriage, The Zahir deals with the dark side of obsession and explores its potential of both fulfilling and destroying our dreams. It is a thoughtful meditation on faith, celebrity, marriage, love, and their relationship to freedom and creativity.

The Zahir teaches us that each of us without an exception has a Zahir. It is up to us what we make of it. It’s our choice whether to get obsessed and destroy our Zahir, or to live our life with our Zahir in the backdrop as something that we know belongs to us forever, and not to need a reassurance all the time.

A contemporary, all encompassing story that leads us through an inner and outer encounter with our worst enemy, ourselves.

Paulo Coelho is widely known as the master of human emotions. His books have affected a million people all over the world and changed their lives forever. His words have the power to get you thinking, make you laugh and cry in a span of moments. Love, loss, life, inspiration, dreams are the major themes of his books. They make you believe in the power of love, make you believe in yourself.

Some of my favorite extracts from The Zahir are stated bellow:

The day man allows true love to appear, those things that are well made will fall into confusion and will overturn everything we believe to br right and true. The world will become real when man learns how to love; until then we will live in the belief that we know what  love is, but will lack the courage to face it as it truly is.

It is so important to let things go. To release them. To cut lose. People need to understand that no one is playing with marked cards; sometimes we win, sometimes we lose. Don’t expect to get anything back, don’t expect any recognition for your efforts, don’t expect your genius to be discovered, or your love to be understood. Complete the circle. Not out of pride, inability, or arrogance, but simply because whatever it is no longer fits into your life. Close the door, change the record, clean the house, get rid of the dust. Stop being who you were and become who you are.

 

Rating: *Awful **Best avoided ***Average ****Good *****Speechless