The Zahir


Yippee.... I finished reading another book by Paulo Coelho.. The Zahir.. Zahir means something or someone which, once we have come into contact with, gradually occupies our every thought. It can be considered either a state of holiness or of madness. The book has nice philosophy in it. I liked it a lot.

Loved the part where author compares himself to a cathedral. The story about circle of love is lovely. “No one should ever ask themselves that why am I unhappy.”— the paragraphs following this line are awesome. A part of the book does inspire to forget your past. I got a bit confused with the explanation of the acomodador part yet liked that too!!

The best part of the book is when he understands what Zahir actually means and writes a few examples from daily life to which we can easily relate.

Now, coming to its plot. I find a few things little ridiculous. According to him, he and his wife, Esther are happily married for 10 long years, having everything one can expect in life. Money, fame and above all, love. And then one day this supposed to be happily married lady leaves her husband without telling anything because she felt something was MISSING. So she herself goes missing!!!!

Now if you feel that something is missing in your life, should you face it, talk about it and try to find a solution, or should you just run away from it in peace, leaving the other person worrying for you. Is it that we don’t realize the worth of what we have till we lose it? And the husband, who claims to love his wife, falls in love with another woman, Marie. Initially it is because he wants to forget Esther. His “this” concept of “love” is beyond my level of understanding. Then he realises that Esther has become his Zahir, but did he think once that even he can be Marie’s Zahir. I was just wondering how the book would look like if Marie writes it in her words if she realises that he was her Zahir!!

Amazing work of philosophy.. Paulo is truly worth all the appreciation he gets..
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Write by: RC - Sunday, September 30, 2007

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