Some books gain a star into the last moment/page, some lose.
That is the case now, when a selfish, vain and mystical character finds his long running from home wife bearing someone's child and full of love decides to take her home. Silly.
Even until then the book did not shine, being an array of little stories and facts, some of them interesting, most of them dull, a sort of domestic philosophy of love, buying time and pages for the sake of nothing...

"بسيار مهم است كه بگذاريم بعضى چيزها بروند، رهايشان كنيم، آزادشان كنيم. انسان ها بايد درك كنند كه هيچ كس با كارت هاى علامت دار بازى نمى كند، گاهى مى بريم، گاهى هم مى بازيم. منتظر نباشيد چيزى را به شما برگردانند، منتظر نباشيد قدر تلاشتان را بدانند، نبوغتان را كشف كنند، عشقتان را درك كنند. چرخه ها را ببنديد. نه به خاطر غرور يا بى قابليتى يا برترى جويى، به خاطر آنكه آن چيز ديگر در زندگى تان جاى نميگيرد. در را ببنديد، موسيقى را عوض كنيد، خانه را تمييز كنيد، غبارها را بتكانيد. ديگر آن كسى نباشيد كه بوديد، و كسى بشويد كه هستيد."

Occasionally, one cannot pinpoint what exactly makes someone or something likable.

This was also true about The Zahir. The story was not fast-paced and the narrator was quite flawed in his moral values and hard to connect with at times, but I still felt an irresistible desire to read this simple yet multidimensional tale of a man whose wife has mysteriously disappeared. His wife Esther was not shown in the book until the very last scene, and the reader learns about her through the narrator who is tormented by the love and loss of his wife. He is unable to come to grips with the fact that she left him despite his interpretation of their marriage being a solid and happy one. It leads him to question his perception of love, marriage, freedom, self-reflection, and in the process, takes the reader on a similar journey.

I've read four of Coehlos books, and I must say I've enjoyed this one tremendously because the author is in his element when he weaves philosophy into fiction. There are many beautiful and thought-provoking sentences throughout. I'm not a blind admirer of his works, and I have not liked all of them, but this is definitely worthwhile. To the strong critics who ridicule the philosophical aspect, I will just remind you that this is not a book on philosophy or marriage or freedom. It is a story and should be read as such. If the reader can imbibe the abstract meaning, then that's a definite bonus.

My favorite lines: "I don't regret difficulties I experienced; I think they helped me to become the person I am today, I feel the way a warrior must feel after years of training; he doesn't remember the details of everything he learned, but he knows how to strike when the time is right.”

راوی کتاب یک نویسنده بی نام بود که گویی از شخصیت خود کوئیلو برگفته شده بود و به دنبال همسرش که ناگهان و بی‌دلیل ترکش کرده بود میگرده. همسری که تبدیل به زهیر نویسنده شده. یعنی چیزی که هر لحظه و هرجا از فکرش بیرون نمیره و انگار تبدیل به وسواس میشه.
مثل همیشه قلم روان کوئیلو رو دوست داشتم و موقع خوندن کتاب گذر زمان رو متوجه نمیشدم. اما یه قسمتایی هرچند برای روشن شدن داستان لازم بودن، ولی میتونستن کوتاه تر باشن.
در کل بعنوان اولین کتاب از کوئیلو پیشنهادش نمیکنم ولی اگه با آثار آشنا هستی به نظرم یه کتاب قابل قبول که میتونی یجایی تو لیست مطالعت بذاری براش.

DNF'd at 200 pages.

The writer lost in his flow of writing throughout the book. It is a boring book. You cannot read more than 1-2 pages continuously. The concepts portrayed were out of the world. A difficult book and hard to understood. It has similar ending as 'The alchemist' had. I found this book have some negative impacts on ones' mind and brain. I won't recommend it to anyone.

This book has a rather interesting story for me, more interesting than most, lol. I picked this book to read as my Z book for an A-Z Title Challenge. Coinciding with that two things happened. First, one of my book groups here on GR decided to read it as a group read, and then a bunch of my friends decided to read The Alchemist at the same time. With the due date for this one looming, I ended up reading the two books back to back, and I have to highly recommend doing that. While The Alchemist is a philosophy book told in a story, The Zahir is a story that tells how that philosophy worked in one characters life. It has a more real life setting than The Alchemist, and reading the two of them together made each one both more enjoyable and more cohesive. I have laughingly told people that it was karma, or destiny, or fate that I read the two together, and I feel that Mr. Coelho would get a kick out of that.

The central character in the book is a nameless famous writer (just like the shepherd in The Alchemist is nameless). At the beginning of the book we find that his wife has disappeared, and it is soon apparent that she has left him. From there the story takes us through his personal struggles to understand why she left, and to pick up the pieces of his life. Along the way we meet some interesting characters, most notably his girlfriend Marie and Mikhail, a friend of his missing wife's.

This book just flowed for me. It was an easy read. I enjoyed the story line and the way that the events played out in the book. I especially liked the character of Mikhail, and reading about his life story. The other thing that I really likes was the author's references to the philosophy espoused in The Alchemist. Maybe because this books seemed more like a true story, less like a myth, I found it even a little bit more enjoyable than The Alchemist. I would give it 4.5 stars if I could.

قرأتها تحت اسم: الظاهر بترجمة الأستاذ العظيم خالد الجبيلي
بينما كنتُ أبحث عن النسخة التي سأقرأها من رواية "الزهير" فوجئتُ بهذه النسخة التي هي بعنوان "الظاهر" وعندما فكرتُ قليلاً وجدتُ أن خالد الجبيلي ربما كان هو الوحيد الذي فهم المقصود من الكلمة العربية الأصل والتي ترجمها من لغات أخرى
(اذا لم تقرأ قواعد العشق الأربعون بعد، فأنصحك أن تقرأها بترجمة خالد الجبيلي)

الظاهر هو شي يلاحقك أينما حاولت الهرب يتغلغل في كيانك ويدخل إلى عقلك فيشله عن التفكير إلا به .. قد يكون شخصاً أو شيئاً
تحدث هنا باولو كويلو عن نفسه فكان هو الراوي والبطل .. الكاتب المشهور الذي نسي كيف يكون الحب، حتى هجرته زوجته فجأة فعاد يتعلم معنى الحب في رحلة البحث عن مكان وجودها

رواية مليئة بحكم باولو المعهودة، والكثير من الاقتباسات .. استمتعت بقرائتها على مهل

:اقتباس

إن أهم شيء في العلاقة الانسانية كلها هو المحادثة ، فقد توقف الناس عن التحادث ، ولم يعودوا يجلسون ليتحدثوا وينصتوا.
فهم يرتادون المسرح والسينما، ويشاهدون التلفاز ويستمعون إلى المذياع، ويقرؤون الكتب .. لكنهم لا يكادون يتكلمون!
إذا أردنا أن نغير العالم فيجب أن نعود إلى زمن كان فيه المحاربون يجتمعون حول النار ويحكون القصص "

Beautifully written.
Coelho has touched the spiritual side of the universe as always. It was a great read in that way.
A slow phased read.
I love the way the narrator analysing the different aspects of falling in love and being the same.
Furthermore, I was really impressed with the way the author had discussed about people following their dreams and people who forget their dreams by giving priority for their loved ones.
A deep and meaningful read.

“i can fix him”, materializado no resultado típico “him being fixed”.
eu sinto que toda a gente devia ler este livro, não pelo resultado mas pelo percurso mental até ao resultado. o zahir (algo que é presente, visível e que depois de ser conhecido ocupa a mente de forma incessante) tornou-se temporariamente o meu zahir para passar a ser o meu livro preferido, aquele livro que a dado ponto surge e se torna O livro que muda uma perspectiva, uma pessoa, ou a sua forma de relacionar consigo e com os outros, a sua forma de ver o mundo e de encarar as experiências que fez e as que quer fazer.

esta parte pode ser da experiência individual de leitora, mas porque é que em cada página me revi em algo? e porque é que parece que já o tinha lido em pensamento? ou porque é que de alguma forma o livro fala sobre sinais quando ele mesmo é um sinal?

leiam asap sff

Being a very interesting read, this book had some lovely quotes, anecdotes and parallels drawn. It's a fast read, and has the usual Coelho recipe of philosophy, nomadic search for the truth and realism.

The book also talked a lot about some topics we face in everyday life; fighting the need to live a monotonous life, being able to erase [read accept] your history for the sake of living in the present, and the reason to embrace emptiness in life, and relying on emotions over facts. One of those books that make you relate with your life, and definitely leave a lasting impact.

I'll leave an anecdote from the book here, it should give you an idea of Coelho's simplistic brilliance.

“Marie, let’s suppose that two firemen go into a forest to put out a small fire. Afterwards, when they emerge and go over to a stream, the face of one is all smeared with black, while the other man’s face is completely clean. My question is this: which of the two will wash his face?

That’s a silly question. The one with the dirty face of course.’

No, the one with the dirty face will look at the other man and assume that he looks like him. And, vice versa, the man with the clean face will see his colleague covered in grime and say to himself: I must be dirty too. I’d better have a wash.’

What are you trying to say?’

I’m saying that, during the time I spent in the hospital, I came to realize that I was always looking for myself in the women I loved. I looked at their lovely, clean faces and saw myself reflected in them. They, on the other hand, looked at me and saw the dirt on my face and, however intelligent or self-confident they were, they ended up seeing themselves reflected in me thinking that they were worse than they were. Please, don’t let that happen to you.”

- Paulo Coelho, "The Zahir"