From Barnes & Noble
In this absorbing novel, the author of
The Alchemist retrieves the Zahir, the token that
Borges used as the symbol of a consuming obsession. In this instance, the object of obsession is the wife of a famed novelist who disappears inexplicably while returning home from a family trip.
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 2005 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
Finding himself in the grips of "the Zahir," a Middle Eastern expression for an all-encompassing obsession, the narrator, a successful novelist, reexamines his life and marriage in an effort to break the bonds of his fixation. His wife, Esther, a war correspondent, has disappeared, last seen with a younger man in a caf , and the narrator's search for her leads him on an expansive physical and spiritual quest. From Paris to Kazakhstan, the novelist encounters a number of cultures and subcultures with varying views of and preconceptions about love and the achievement of ultimate happiness. Brazilian author Coelho, known for such best-selling inspirational fables as The Alchemist, has written an enlightening story of faith and the reclamation of pure love. Personal elements incorporating his own experiences as an author and his pilgrimages to various exotic locations lend the novel a highly autobiographical feel. Recommended for all popular fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/05.]-Joy St. John, Henderson Dist. P.L., NV Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
On the road again-to spiritual and sexual fulfillment, as promised by the megabestselling Brazilian author of The Alchemist . Coelho's latest (not to be distinguished from any of its predecessors) is the "story" of a rich and famous author of inspirational fiction (to whom the critics are really mean) whose wife, a distinguished war correspondent, inexplicably disappears, presumably in the company of her young translator, who hails from the Mysterious East. The narrator broods for 200 or so pages, repeatedly re-summarizes his life and opinions, charms every woman he meets, debates the ethics of spousal appropriation when the translator (Mikhail) reappears, then-following countless pages of rhetorical foreplay-undertakes a healing pilgrimage to Mikhail's territory (Kazakhstan). The wife he's seeking, you see, has become his "Zahir"-in Islamic thought, "something which, once touched or seen, can never be forgotten, and which gradually so fills our thoughts that we are driven to madness." (Like this book, perhaps?) Little happens en route, though upon arriving at a railway station the narrator perceives that "the tracks seemed to be saying something about my marriage, and about all marriages." (Wait! Yes, I hear them. They're saying "drivel, drivel, drivel.") Abstractions, bromides and oversimplifications abound, as Coelho's scarcely fictionalized narrator holds forth on freedom, love, the "Divine Energy" through which love flows and the enigma of self-realization ("Before I could find her, I must find myself"). Coelho's plain prose does go down easily, and is no more a challenge to the intellect than Jell-o is to the esophagus. Costa dutifully renders Coelho's pronouncements as blandnessincarnate, politely declining to correct recurring syntactical barbarisms (e.g., "No one should ever ask themselves that"). One final gem of wisdom: "It is always important to know when something has reached its end." The Zahir ends on page 298. You're welcome.
Vibe
“If you read Coelho’s book The Alchemist, then you should definitely read this.... There’s really no one else like him.”
Marie Claire
“Fans of Paulo Coelho will love this eloquent meditation on commitment--as will anyone who’s ever been in a relationship.”
Edmonton Journal (Alberta)
“A fast-moving, captivating, both satirical and thoughtful novel about love and desire.”
Bloomberg.com
“Likely to entrance even the most cynical of readers.”
New York Times
“Coelho is a novelist who writes in a universal language.”
