Product Description

The narrator of The Zahir is a bestselling novelist who lives in Paris and enjoys all the privileges money and celebrity bring. His wife of ten years, Esther, is a war correspondent who has disappeared along with a friend, Mikhail, who may or may not be her lover.

Was Esther kidnapped, murdered, or did she simply escape a marriage that left her unfulfilled? The narrator doesn't have any answers, but he has plenty of questions of his own. Then one day Mikhail finds the narrator and promises to reunite him with his wife. In his attempt to recapture a lost love, the narrator discovers something unexpected about himself.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24022 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-01
• Released on: 2006-07-03
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The press chat cites 65 million copies of Coelho's eight previous novels in print, making the Brazilian author one of the world's bestselling novelists (150 countries and 56 languages). This book, whose title means "the present" or "unable to go unnoticed" in Arabic, has an initial staggered laydown of eight million copies in 83 countries and 42 languages. It centers on the narrator's search for his missing wife, Esther, a journalist who fled Iraq in the runup to the present war, only to disappear from Paris; the narrator, a writer, is freed from suspicion when his lover, Marie, comes forward with a (true) alibi. He seeks out Mikhail, the man who may be Esther's most recent lover and with whom she was last seen, who has abandoned his native Kazakhstan for a kind of speaking tour on love. Mikhail introduces the narrator to a global underground "tribe" of spiritual seekers who resist, somewhat vaguely, conventional ways of living. Through the narrator's journey from Paris to Kazakhstan, Coelho explores various meanings of love and life, but the impact of these lessons is diminished significantly as they are repeated in various forms by various characters. Then again, 65 million readers can't be wrong; the spare, propulsive style that drove The Alchemist, Eleven Minutes and Coelho's other books will easily carry fans through myriad iterations of the ways and means of amor. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile
Even before listening, an especially beautiful package in peaceful and harmonious shades of soft coral and delicate sand casts a spell on the listener. Then, Jamie Glover's elegantly restrained and deeply felt narration achieves an understated and unforgettable listening experience. The plot is an intriguing puzzle: A man searches for a beloved wife who has mysteriously vanished with a mutual friend. The protagonist subsequently embarks on a journey to find her and, most importantly, to understand what made her leave him without notice and without apparent reason. Moving and meaningful as a story, this work, for some listeners, may also result in a significant search for their own selves, as well. L.C. 2006 Audie Award Finalist © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
Subtitled A Novel of Obsession, this tale is the philosophical and spiritual chronicle of one man's quest for self-discovery. Stunned by his wife's inexplicable disappearance from their Paris home and immediately suspected of foul play by the authorities and the press, the unnamed protagonist, a best-selling writer, is forced to reexamine both his marital relationship and his own life. What he eventually discovers with the help of a -mysterious stranger named Mikhail--a man he suspects is somehow involved in Esther's disappearance--is that he must first "find himself" before he can ever hope to find his wife. Although Esther is physically and emotionally lost to him, he rediscovers her as he retraces both her footsteps and the disintegration of their visceral connection. Finally able to release the past and his anger, he can accept the uncertainty of the present by traveling to Kazakhstan with Mikhail in search of Esther and the remote possibility of resurrecting a dormant love. As in The Alchemist (1993), Coelho continues to prove himself a contemporary fabulist, spinning irresistible stories while seeking enlightenment at the same time. Interwoven with details drawn from his life, the mesmerizing narrative offers a highly personal meditation on the meaning and the power of love. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

The most beautiful book I have ever read
It oozes of love and what love really is. It is a gorgeously beautiful book and I will be reading it again soon. Loved it! Thank you for writting it!

"A novel about obsesion, love, appreciation, living in the present moment and more"
This is a story about a famous writer whose wife, a journalist, suddenly disapears. He had become unapreciative of his partner, and has a long history of infidelity, however, this couple seemed to have an open marriage, meaning he didn't expect fidelity from her either. A long time goes by without anybody knowing where is Esther, that's her name, but suddenly a man which whom she was last seen and whom is suspected to be her lover comes to talk to him while he was promoting his last book, books that he writes about his love for Esther and the experience he is going through since she disappeared, from then on starts a journey about knowing who Esther really was, her own journey, in the process, he rediscovered himself. This was a man with Spiritual knowledge, but after reaching certain point had become complacent and self-indulgent.
I don't want to give the story away, only I got to tell you that since I first read The Alchemist, I have read most every book of Paulo Coelho and have never been disapointed, in all of them I have gained wisdom for my own life. From this book I learned that very rarely we live in the present moment, and when we don't live in the present moment, is as if we are not really alive, I learned to dumped my story, the book even shares a Shamanic exercize to dump your story, in other words empty your vessel, A warrior of the Light doesn't have a past, so much energy waisted in our story that we could use for our present moment, I was reminded to be opened to new experiences and to aknowledge the feelings buried inside me, the book also teaches about forgiveness and humbleness, honesty and trust in the Divine, it talks about the Divine Femenine awakening, about signs and being alert to follown the signs the Universe gives us, trust in the Divine guidance. As if this wasn't enough, I am sure there is more that escapes my mind at this moment and you will probably discover some more for yourself! oh yes, and appreciation, learn and appreciate the people in our lives!

it was not worth wasting my time
Even though it would be the last sentence of the review, i'll share the last in the very first. This is the first book i've read written by Coelho and i reckon that it'll be the last one as well. It doesn't mean the book itself is utterly hollow, there are some parts which make you ponder on some certain subjects nevertheless it's full of chiche,contradictions and repeat therein which really bores.