The Zahir
The Zahir بقلم Paulo Coelho ... Something or somebody that begins with just a passing thought and ends up being the only thing we can think about. This can be unerstood as saintliness or insanity. The Zahir, Paulo Coelho's new novel, is a perfect follow-on to The Alchemist. Paulo picks up the theme of the pilgrimage to Santiago but tells a very different, gripping story of love, loss and passionate obsession. The protagonist of this new novel is a renowned author who writes about spirituality and once went on pilgrimage along the road to Santiago. On a return visit, he is suddenly abandoned by his wife, who leaves no trace of herself behind. As the story unfolds the author becomes obsessed with understanding the reason for her desertion. The title comes from a tale by Jorge Luis Borges, published in his book The Aleph. In Arabic Zahir means 'visible, present and unable to go unnoticed.' It refers to something or someone that ends up being the only thing we can think of. This state of 'possession' can be understood as saintliness or insanity, with a fine line between the two. The novel is also full of comments on what it is to be rich and famous, on the meaning of money, on what motivates a writer and on the nature of marriage.
Author
![Paulo Coelho]()
Paulo Coelho
Paulo Coelho was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in August 1947. He attended law school there but abandoned his studies in 1970 to travel throughout South America, as well as Europe and North Africa.
Two years later he returned to Brazil and began writing. Together with rock star Raul Seixas, he composed popular music lyrics that revolutionized Brazilian rock.
After a brief imprisonment in 1974 for alleged subversive activities against the Brazilian government, Coelho worked for five years for the recording departments of Polygram and CBS. Between 1981 and 1986 he studied with the order of RAM, an ancient, religious Spanish society. Now a literary phenomenon, he has sold over 175 million books worldwide and has been translated into 80 languages. He has received numerous international literary awards from a variety of countries and his books have become permanent fixtures on the international bestseller lists, including The Alchemist, which has spent 360 consecutive weeks on the NYT Trade Paperback chart.
He has been a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters since 2002, and in 2007 he was appointed United Nations Messenger of Peace.