Guest Post: The Zahir

Hey guys! Affy here taking over the butterfly blog for today! ^_^ 

Being a music, food and writing junkie (err,what?) myself, I hope I'll keep u beautiful readers entertained :)

I know this is coming in pretty late but it absolutely HAD to be done! Paulo Coelho; who hasn't heard of him? From his critically acclaimed 'The Alchemist' to 'The Witch of Portobello' and all the fantasy and mysticism in between, Coelho knows exactly what his readers love. :)

The book under consideration in this post, The Zahir, is unlike anything I've ever read before. Coelho personally regards it as a work of fiction in spite of the fact that it seems nearly autobiographical.

The title of the book may come as a surprise to many. The context, however, dates back to the Arabic language where Zahir is the word for 'obvious'. The Zahir, as with all his other work, comes with an underlying message: breaking free from the rituals and baseless dogmas of society and promoting originality. The fusion of spirituality and determination lead the narrator (also the main character) to eternal happiness.

Revolving around a series of inter-related events, 'The Zahir' is based on the search of the main character's wife, Esther, a war correspondent who goes missing with her suspected lover (as stated in the first two paragraphs of the book).

As with every book, Coelho cunningly makes his point by throwing in a quote here and there , aided usually by some extra information which makes the whole story a puzzle gradually being solved. Even though the language tends to get intense quite often, the theme makes up for it all!

Apart from the basic, 'obvious' (pun intended :p ) plot of the story where the quest for a missing wife becomes more of a challenge than a mystery, some kind of a secret message is noticed, oftentimes purposely kindled and proves thought-provoking. Grim realities prevalent in the world today are highlighted nearly throughout the book with plausible proposals of solutions but only noticed if read with the concentration that the book deserves.

My verdict? No less than a 4.5 out of 5. A must read life-changer! :)

For more by me visit my (in-process) blog at affywrites.blogspot.com

Any suggestions and recommendations are more than welcome and will be appreciated! XO

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Thanks Affy for taking over today! We hope to see more of you in future! :) x

What's your favourite book by Coelho?