So far my least favorite of Coelho's books. A woman leaves her husband with no explanation to find out how to be happy. She leaves no note, no messenger, takes nothing, just seems to disappear. He finds himself in the journey and learns he needs to look for her because he loves her, not because he is obsessed. Along the way other hearts get broken.

Quotes:

"When someone leaves, it's because someone else is about to arrive - I'll find love again."

"In order to be able to find her, I first had to fin More...

I believe the quotation below will be sufficient to show how brilliant Coelho is:

‘Marie, let’s suppose that two firemen go into a forest to put out a small fire. Afterwards, when they emerge and go over to a stream, the face of one is all smeared with black, while the other man’s face is completely clean. My question is this: which of the two will wash his face?

‘That’s a silly question. The one with the dirty face of course.’

‘No, the one with the dirty face will look at the other man and assu More...

wow. do you know how and when i discovered this author? at the airport bookstore- at la guardia, the american terminal-the one next to the dunkin donuts/baskin robbins that one must ignore... you know how difficult it is to find something worthwhile to read in the airport bookstore, and i was about to buy something else- this book was in the low corner pocket and i saw it. the cover, and the title, are enticing, but could have been just over the top. but i usually test drive books buy opening th More...

This book was nothing like I expected. The back description was misleading - as a novice traveller I saw that the narrator of the book was going to go through "Spain, France, Croatia" etc in order to find the love of his life. Do not be fooled, there is little to no description of these places. In fact, there is no description of Spain at all. Thoroughly disappointing.

Besides that the book itself was... interesting. I admit it is a much different story than I have ever read and I was given some More...

هذه الرواية الثانية لي مع باولو كويليو ولا ادري ان كانت الترجمة هي المشكلة في هذا السرد الممل ام هو اسلوب الراوي .الرواية فيها تطويل ممل ووصف رتيب لدرجة انك تفقد القدرة على اكمال القراءة .احداث الرواية تدور في محور ضيق فيها بعض المشوقات والعبر الجميلة .ولكن اعتقد ان هناك ما يستحق القراءة اجود بكثير .

الزهير هي نطق آخر للكلمة العربية الظاهر والتي تعني الشئ الواضح أو الذي لا يمكن المرور دون ملاحظته. تدور القصّة حول الراوي صاحب الروايات الأكثر رواجاً، وبحثه لزوجتِه المفقودة. يتمتّع بطل الرواية بكلّ الامتيازات ومن ذلك المال والشهرة ولكنه مشكوك فيه من السلطات والصحافة بسبب الاختفاء الغير قابل للتوضيح لزوجته من بيتهم في باريس. يستكشف كويلو معاني مختلفة للحب والحياة من خلال الرواية(ويكيبيديا)
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كعادة باولو كويليو أبهرني في (الزهير) لكنه فاجأني في النهاية لم تكن مناسبة لمستوى الرواية وما تحويه من ج More...

The (Zahir) is a concept that was totally new to me , I had to do some further research to find out that it is related to the Sufi , I read the book in English but after noticing the Arabic edition , I would have preferred if it was titled (Al zaher الظاهر ) as a translation not as a repetition !
I liked the definition he reached at the ednd :
(The zahir was the fixation on everything that had been passed from generation to generation ; it left no question unanswered , it looks up all the space ; More...

Une vraie quête de soi. Un livre qui va au fond des choses, en quête du sens de la vie, de l'amour, ..A lire encore jeune pour éviter les erreurs du personnage dans l'hisoire : laisser la vie nous submerger et nous faire perdre ce qui compte le plus à nos yeux. A lire absolument.

Peut être qu’on est victime d’une histoire mal racontée, la preuve est qu’on vit dans un monde où on obéit à des règles, à des lois sans chercher à les comprendre, sans même demander pourquoi, on les considère tout simplement comme une pure vérité, contrairement aux clochards qu’ont choisi de rester à l’extérieur de ce monde organisé mais quasiment triste.

Un célèbre écrivain commence à poser des questions après la disparition mystérieuse de sa femme Esther : Pourquoi m’a-t- elle quitté ? Pourqu More...

2.6 stars
Okay, dear dear Paulo Coelho. Where do I start?


This is how this book briefly was written.



Careful, this review contains spoilers!
(view spoiler)[

Just so you guys and girls know, this is the seventh book I read by the dude in here, so I am talking based on previous experience, not prejudgment, ok?

Paulo in this extravagant novel is searching for his wife who decided to leave no trace of her whereabouts to him because she felt unhappy. Unhappy because he doesn't understand her, because he is always (hide spoiler)] More...

This book was not of the same quality as Alchemist but still presented some noble and elevated concepts as presented in all of paulo's books and perhaps the reason I read his books is that they always tend to feature some sort of spiritual quest. There is also a aspect of Sufism in Paulo's books which make them more eminent.

The unnamed narrator of this story is a writer whose wife, Esther, a war correspondent leaves him suddenly without any information or trace of leaving. When she disappears, h More...

1 star. Self-congratulatory, conceited wankery. Only earns it's 1 as the prose was easy to read and well written for what it was. If you would like to read a book about how fantastic Coelho thinks he is, this is for you.

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By demand, my blog post on this book:
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I am just going to come out and say it.

Paulo Coelho is a knob.

I dislike this man, his opinions and his writing. I have read The Alchemist and the The Fifth Mountain in the past and have felt that they were completely More...

Zahir adalah obsesi pada segala hal yang telah diwariskan turun-temurun dari generasi ke generasi, tidak ada pertanyaan yang tidak terjawab olehnya. dia menguasai seluruh ruang, dia bahkan tidak membiarkan kita mempertimbangkan kemungkinan segala sesuatu bisa berubah.
Zahir yang sangat perkasa itu kelihatannya terlahir bersama setiap manusia dan mencapai puncak kekuatan pada masa kecil, menentukan aturan-aturan yang sejak saat itu dipatuhi selamanya.
Apa yang dipikir orang lain lebih penting, dari More...

I am momentarily wordless.. But I will eventually have to say something, if not lots of things, on the exceptional Coelho’s novel The Zahir. I may begin by saying that this novel was like a textbook on real life and true love for me. It introduced me to many new concepts, such as personal history, as well as to many interesting anecdotes that I would pay anything to my memory so it always remembers them. I don’t think that I ever liked as many statements, at some points whole pages, in one book. More...

الرّوَايَة جمِيلَة نوْعًا مَا، تحْكِي قصَّة كَاتِبْ مشْهُور ترَكتْهُ زوْجتُه إستَر وهي مراسلة حربية بعد 10 سَنوات زوَاجْ
فلَمْ يتقبَّل رحِيلهَا دُونَ أسبَابٍ تُذْكَر، لتُصْبح الزَّهِير المُلازمَ لهُ، فيَذهب للبحْثِ عنْ نفْسِه أولا ثمَّ ينتقلُ من باريس إلى آسيا الوسطى لييفتح عينيه على الحُب الحقِيقي.

والرّوايَة ملِيئة بالأفكار الفلسفية العمِيقَة تلكَ التي لا تزالُ تشغل البشريَّة

والزهِير كما عرفه المؤلف استنادًا إلى كاتب آخر هو كُل شيء ظَاهر، حاضر لا يمرُّ مرور الكِرام، وإنه شخْص أو شيْء يستحْوذ على More...

رواية أخرى بحجم روعة سابقاتها ، لكن لدي نصيحة صغيرة لكل من سيقرأ نتاج باولو كويلو الأدبي ..

أنصحكم بالاطلاع على كتابه الخيميائي ، لأنك بعد ذلك ستجد اقتباسات وتلميحات وردت فيه عن الراعي عن الكنز عن الأحلام والحب الأوحد ..!

تماما كما شهدت ذلك في كتاب مئة عام من العزلة لغارسيا ماركيز و مجموعاته القصصية التالية للرائعة النوبلية ..

عودة للزهير التي تبدأ بمفاجأة قاسية يقع فيها كاتب مشهور باختفاء زوجته بدون سابق إنذار ،

وبدل أن يتابع حياته مع البديل ، يسيطر عليه هاجسٌ وحيد يؤرقه و يقض مضجعه : ” لم هجرتني ز More...

This book has a rather interesting story for me, more interesting than most, lol. I picked this book to read as my Z book for an A-Z Title Challenge. Coinciding with that two things happened. First, one of my book groups here on GR decided to read it as a group read, and then a bunch of my friends decided to read The Alchemist at the same time. With the due date for this one looming, I ended up reading the two books back to back, and I have to highly recommend doing that. While The Alchemist is More...

I have to say, at times I found myself obsessed with this book about obsession. At times, it didn't quite flow or seemed to bring in random points, but I felt like I just "got it" and completely understood where he was coming from. Coelho's words resonated deeply within me, and in fact, helped me to "see" and unlock some feelings that I haven't been able to understand for quite some time. In that sense, it was like an Eat, Pray, Love for me. Not to compare authors, literary styles, or anything l More...

A woman leaves her husband with no explanation. He finds himself in a journey of self discovery. So people look for other people because they love them or because they obsessed about them? Guess what, read the Zahir to find out. Dahdah of course he is looking for her because he loves her, A+ to my positivity. I guess I agree with the sous-jacent message "The most important thing in human relationships is conversation, Oh high spirit what happened to your people these days, they don't talk anymor More...

Typical Coelho...lots of really good quotes. whether you agree with them or not does not really matter but he makes you think by hitting the extremes.

When i get time i will type my favorite two pages which I think summarize the whole book. here are some others.

"Although I know that I may have lost forever the woman I love, I must try to enjoy all the graces that God has given me today. Grace cannot be hoarded. There are no banks where it can be deposited to be used when I feel more at peace wit More...

A great book for anyone struggling with attachment or ownership of something that you love.

"I heard other people speaking in the name of freedom and the more they defended this unique right, the more enslaved the seemed to be to the parent's wishes, to a marriage in which they had promised to stay with the other person "for the rest of their lives," to the bathroom scales, to their diet, to the half-finished projects, to lovers to whom they were incapable of saying "No", or "It's over", to weeke More...

OK, this book offers an extreme perspective on relationships more towards the stereotypical guy extreme. Granted, not all guys are like this and some guys are capable of monogamy, but I have never heard of a woman that follows that path. This woman is what most guys crave, one who doesn't mind if her guy cheats as long as he comes back and is passionate about their relationship. Anyways, this book offers a path to rediscover yourself and your expectations of relationships in your life. It's an i More...

i have only about 50 pages to go, so i am sure i will finish this book this evening on the metro ride home... so far i have enjoyed the book and i am glad that i am reading it. it reminds me a lot of the alchemist though, and they actually reference the main character's trip to santiago numerous times - the zahir focuses on love and it's power in our lives and how it can change our destiny. i don't necessarily agree with a lot the things coelho says in the book, and a lot of the lessons he speak More...

I was diasspointed with this and I would consider myself a fan of Paolo Coelho. I just don't think this lived up to his usual work. The plot was weak and there was a lot of annoying, sentimental stream-of-consciousness drivel about the meaning of love and the meaning of life. It's true that these are Coelho's usual themes but I think he's gotten a bit carried away with all the sentiment in this novel and forgotten the story in the process. The only thing that kept me reading until the end was my More...

اینکه همه ما از روی عادت زندگی می کنیم یک چیز مسلمی است. اصلا اینکه بدون فکر هر کاری را می کنیم یک معضل هست ولی دلیل نمی شود که تمامی کارهایمان غلط باشد و یا اینکه لزومی داشته باشد فرقه ای جدید یا آیین جدیدی ایجاد کنیم.
نویسنده در پایان به همان مطلبی دچار می شود که چند صفحه قبل از آن ناراحت بود, یک پایان خوش برای داستان عشقی

Der Icherzähler des Romans, ist ein äußerst erfolgreicher Schriftsteller, der plötzlich von der Situation steht, dass ihm seine Ehefrau abhanden gekommen ist. Er wird verhaftet, bald wieder freigelassen, sucht sie wie verrückt und wird doch nicht fündig. Ihre Ehe war immer eine sehr offene Beziehung, wo beide immer wieder Affären hatten; und so scheint es diesmal so zu sein, dass Esther ihn wegen eines jüngeren Mannes dauerhaft verlassen hat. Dies zu verarbeiten scheint zunächst nicht unmöglich More...

1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars[ 4 of 5 stars ]5 of 5 stars
تدافع الكلمات .. فلسفته للامور .. الأمواج التي تتلاطم في باله .. حيرته كل ذلك نجح في ادخالنا في دوامتها !
والتجربة التي خاضها وهو يخدع نفسه فيها وحاول بكل ما أوتي من مفردات أن يخدعنا معه .. لكنه سرعان ما لطمنا سريعاً فتناثرت أوهامنا مخلفة ورائها المفهوم الحقيقي "للرجل المهجور" شعور صعب وتجربة يعترف بكل سطر فيها بأنه هو المُلام .. في وقت حاولت استير فيه اعطاءه الاشارات معلنة حاجتها له .. وبأن رحلتها حول العالم (حيث كانت تغير أماكن سفر More...

تدافع الكلمات .. فلسفته للامور .. الأمواج التي تتلاطم في باله .. حيرته كل ذلك نجح في ادخالنا في دوامتها !
والتجربة التي خاضها وهو يخدع نفسه فيها وحاول بكل ما أوتي من مفردات أن يخدعنا معه .. لكنه سرعان ما لطمنا سريعاً فتناثرت أوهامنا مخلفة ورائها المفهوم الحقيقي "للرجل المهجور" شعور صعب وتجربة يعترف بكل سطر فيها بأنه هو المُلام .. في وقت حاولت استير فيه اعطاءه الاشارات معلنة حاجتها له .. وبأن رحلتها حول العالم (حيث كانت تغير أماكن سفرها أكثر مم كانت تغير حذائها ) ما كانت إلا لأنها فقدت عنصر الأمان More...

A successful writer is left mystified by the disappearance of his wife, Esther. Although time brings new love and accomplishment, thoughts of Esther keep returning to him and soon his wife becomes a Zahir for him. ‘Zahir’ is an Arabic term for conspicuous (to be clearly visible, and attract attention). His curiosity and soon his obsession for Esther forces him to re-examine his whole life and find out where he must have gone wrong in his relationship that caused his wife withdraw completely from More...

I'm afraid this story just didn't hold my interest. I've heard really good things about this author and was looking forward to reading some of his work. Sadly I was very disappointed with this particular instalment.

A zahir, we are told, is "someone or something which, once we have come into contact with them or it, gradually occupies our every thought". Within the story line the zahir is a novelists missing war-correspondent wife. After she disappears, the novelist starts out on a physical and More...