This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.
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.… (more)
Was very impressed by Paulo's confident honesty writing this book - that is always a big plus factor for me.
I had read a few pages of The Alchemist when I picked up this book - as a loan from a friend I had to return The Zahir so I read it out of his written sequence.
I'd recommend you actually do so, it sets the context for how The Alchemist was written - which I still need to return to. ( )
A difficult book to get into and read. I am not sure though whether it was the book itself or the actor doing the reading which made it so difficult (could have been a mixture of both). Overall a book that can make you think about where you are in life, but will not be one that I would be interested in in reading again. ( )
[four epigraphs] "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who turn to you. Amen".
"What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? Luke 15:4".
"ITHACA [poem] Constantine Cavafy (1863-1933) translated by Rae Dalven".
"According to the writer Jorge Luis Borges, the idea of the Zahir comes from Islamic tradition [...] Faubourg Saint-Pères Encyclopedia of the Fantastic (1953)".
Dedication
[...] This book is dedicated to you, Christina, my wife.
First words
"Her name is Esther; she is a war correspondent who has just returned from Iraq because of the imminent invasion of that country; she is thirty years old, married, without children."
Quotations
Freedom is not the absence of commitments, but the ability to choose—and to commit myself to—what is best for me.
Last words
"I placed my hands on her shoulders and blessed her just as I had been blessed."
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.
▾Library descriptions
No library descriptions found.
▾LibraryThing members' description
Book 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.
)
)
)
)
Google Books — Loading...
(3.31)
Wikipedia in English (2)
9