The Zahir

Finally...Paulo Coelho mania is over! thank god...I was slowly on my path to spirituality...at 24...that would mean...cant even begin to explain what!

The Zahir - according to the author - is a state of madness that might come with love of someone or something. Here, the author was 'in love' with his wife,Esther, who left him because she thought that something was missing in their life.

According to them, they were happily married, had everything they wanted from trips to luxury to even love...still she left him without him knowing. The author spends two years in her search...in between he's in love with a woman named Marie. But he has to find his Zahir...for he is occupied by her thoughts day and night.

All this sounds like a ridiculous idea to me. If you had everything, but felt something was missing why didn't the wife try to talk it over. Lets assume that Esther wanted the husband to realize his madness for her.But why the hell he had other women in his life whom, according to him, he loved too!

Most chapters are on Mikhail(a friend of the wife whom the author suspects to be the cause for Esther leaving) and his sessions where people tell their stories in open to strangers, have fun and thus relieve themselves.

Sharing pain is good, but i feel sharing what you feel with your close ones builds stronger bonds and might even solve all misunderstandings which might be the cause for pain! And well, the whole concept of love in The Zahir is beyond me.

To each his own. And Paulo has his own thoughts. So I'll give him his due credit for some amazing work elsewhere. But lets just hope love remains love and all the unconventional blabber about this emotion stays away from earth!