The Zahir by Paulo Coelho

There were times when Alchemist was read being put on the lap under the desk during the boring lectures of German in the university. We had a waiting list in the group for every book by Paulo Coelho. They travelled from one to another and it was forbidden to discuss before it was read by everyone. We were very young and easily impressed, everything could become a revelation. Then we were told Coelho's language was poor, his plot for the Alchemist borrowed, his works of no literary value, but nobody cared. We kept reading.

I still buy every new book by Coelho, I still wait for them, I read them all, but my favourite remains The Zahir. There was fierce competition between the publishing houses and the first translation appeared to be in Ukrainian and I decided to not wait for the Russian one. Good decision! Later on I reread it in Russian and English and nothing could compare to the melodious Ukrainian version. Anyway, I was holding it feeling excited and scared at the same time. I wanted to read it but I was afraid to stay disappointed. I was no longer a student, I was no longer under a spell. How mistaken I was. It felt like I met a boy I used to love at school and after years the feeling was still there and he was still that very boy I skipped classes with and held hands in the cinema. I really loved the book.
It was thought The Zahir was autobiographical. The protagonist of the book is a famous writer on the peak of his career who found his wife gone one day. If only she died or was kidnapped, it could add drama, it could sell more copies, it could bring more useful contacts. But she just left him, she left him. And there it all started - anger, hate, dispair, blame, denial... love.
After Lady Chatterley's Lover it was probably the closest attempt to try and reveal the woman's feelings. It was about Esther's escape from the ideal world of money making that made the protagonist to set out on a pilgrimage. Where did it bring him? To the understanding of love, which is above demanding for faithfulness, responsibility, common sense, love is just out there, free and true, quite hard to find, much harder to not lose.