the worst book I have ever read? - Rated 
I have just done something which as a bibliophile I find rather shocking - I have put a book in the bin. It is 'The Zahir' by Paulo Coelho, and it is the worst book I have ever read. Where to start? It is stunningly badly written. Coelho is either barely literate in his native language, or he put the translation job out to tender and took the cheapest quote. He is also astoundingly vain and humourless - or at least his main character is, who I take to be a not particularly well disguised avatar of himself. This is a book with pretensions to grandeur, with hints that the author has found a way to discover and profit from a profound spirituality. But what it actually is is a piece of shallow and pretentious pseudo-philosophy in which vacuous and unpleasant characters of very dubious moral value witter on in an infuriatingly vague way about 'love' - a word which Coelho never bothers to define. It is a book which I shall remember for only one notable feature - that at one point the narcissistic sentimentality reached such a point that I actually felt physically ill. Read the first paragraph of the last chapter and see if it has the same effect on you.
I am a Paulo fan - Rated 
I have read many of Paulos books however this is not one of his best, it is slightly long winded although the stories message is a very good one, if you read all the time its worth a read, if you dont read very often and want to read a Paulo go for the Valkyries, you need to read the whole book to appreciate it.
Why? - Rated
To me, this book feels more like a reflection of the author's perception of himself.
A charactor states part way in a book, that any novel is always in some part autobiographical... then elsewhere in the book, the main charactor, a (supposedly) succesful author forces people to divulge what they earn, then boasts about how their earnings are based on expenses, that as soon as they lose their jobs those expenses are gone, but how _his_ wealth is based on the work he has created and from which he gets a continuous royalty stream that's set him up for life .... how superior!
Feel free to help him maintain that royalty stream if you wish... I can't see any other reason why he might have written this book.
Reading it, it just felt to me like the book was written because, well, possibly because the author feels he's an author and therefore should write, or perhaps his publisher demanded another book, or perhaps he needed a bit bigger royalty stream. Who knows. But to me it felt very superficial. It felt to me like it was trying to be deep and meaningful, but missed it by a mile and came across just so half-hearted and insincere.
The overall story line felt ... well... lacking. The language weak and repetitive. It just kept coming back to 'zahir', but almost as though he'd decided that was the title of the book, but didn't really have a good idea of how to work from it.
A novel of obsession - Rated 
I hadn't read a Paulo Coelho book for a while and this book has reminded me what I love about his writing. I am definitely intending to read more of his work. I love the way the prose pulls you in and keeps you interested. There are many inspirational and spiritual passages in the novel which seem to be written with the intention of giving hope and direction to the reader.
The book is about an internationally acclaimed author whose wife has disappeared. She is a War correspondent and, therefore, the husband does not know whether she left him, or whether she was kidnapped or something far worse. One day a man appears at one of the author's book signings with a message from the wife to say that she is okay. The husband then becomes increasingly obsessed with idea of finding her. She becomes his 'Zahir' which is defined as something which, once seen or touched, can not be forgotten. We follow the husband in his journey to find his wife, and also in his own personal spiritual journey along the way.
It is described as a novel of 'obsession' and, in my view, Paulo has done a great job in writing the book in such a way that the reader has almost a compulsion to read on to find out what happens - almost as if the book becomes an obsession.
The book isn't perfect, so I can't give it five stars. I did find it a bit confusing in places, as there are often long conversations in the book between characters (sometimes multiple characters) without reference as to who is the speaker. Also, the lack of quotation marks at the beginning of new paragraphs when a character was making a speech or talking over a few paragraphs, was a bit annoying and also confusing.
Finally, I was quite disappointed with the ending; for me it was too predictable and a bit contrived.
But on the whole I enjoyed this book, and would definitely recommend it.
My favourite - Rated 
This is the first Paulo Coelho book I read and since then he has become one of my favourite authors. I have read almost all his books and I've liked them all, in varying degrees. 'The Zahir' forced me to introspect like no other book has ever done. My all time favourite.
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