A review by vhop
The Zahir by Paulo Coelho

2.0

There's something to learn from every book. That's what made me finish this book which otherwise could have been a total waste of time. I really really tried my best to get into this book - it is well written - but no matter how hard I tried it just didn't speak to me. For example, I really fail to understand the logic or perhaps just the moral and ethical issues behind the idea of "true love" as presented in Zahir. How can a man talk about a woman as his true love without which he can't live and at the same time live with another woman? Doesn't faithfulness and love walk hand in hand? Obviously it doesn't - in Coelho's world. And if his wife was just an obsession then why confuse it with love? Anyway, this book never grabbed me and I probably won't read anything else from Coelho; the world is full of wonderful books!
And what did I learn? Well, the concept of Zahir was new to me as was the sad history of Kazakstan. Learning facts like these made it worthwhile to spend some of my vacation reading this book.