El Zahir – A story of love and fulfillment

“El Zahir” which means ‘the present’ or ‘not being able to go unnoticed’ is one of Coelho’s best works. The novel has both a spiritual and philosophical touch. It is about this man, the protagonist and his quest to discover himself. It focuses on the narrator, a successful novelist in search of his wife.

Having enjoyed all the privileges a man can have, thanks to money and celebrity, he realizes that his life is now facing some of the most unpredictable questions. Esther, his wife of ten years, has disappeared from her house and immediately the authorities and the press suspect that she has committed a crime. Unable to understand Esther’s unexplained disappearance, he is forced to re-examine both his marital relationship and his own life.

The narrator has many unanswered questions. Was Esther kidnapped or did she decide to separate from him after a failed marriage? Eventually, his only link to Esther’s disappearance is Mikhail, his wife’s friend. The narrator then begins his journey, searching for him to find his wife. Like Coelho’s other stories, this one also focuses on the journey. During this journey, he discovers a lot about life and love and their many faces.

It is then that he realizes his obsession with his wife, rather than with his love. All this makes him a much more enlightened human being who continuously travels in search of his dreams. Man can realize his own dreams and destroy them too. That is exactly what the author intends and indeed successfully portrays in this beautiful novel about human emotions and the continual enlightenment of an individual. The narrator understands the value of what he had long taken for granted only after losing it in time and is left without an answer to his questions.