The Zahir audiobook

I believe the quotation below will be sufficient to show how brilliant Coelho is: ‘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.’

O Zahir = The Zahir, Paulo CoelhoThe Zahir is a 2005 novel by the Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho. Just as in an earlier book, The Alchemist, The Zahir is about a pilgrimage. The book touches on themes of love, loss and obsession. The Zahir was written in Coelho's native language, Portuguese, and it has been translated into 44 languages. The Zahir means 'the obvious' or 'conspicuous' in Arabic. The story revolves around the life of the narrator, a novelist, and in particular his search for his missing wife, Esther. He enjoys all the privileges that money and celebrity bring. He is suspected of foul play by both the police and the press, who suspect that he may have had a role in the inexplicable disappearance of his wife from their Paris home.عنوانهای چاپ شده در ایران: «زهیر»، «ظاهر»؛ نویسنده: پائولو کوئیلو؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز نخست ماه مارس سال2004میلادیعنوان: زهیر؛ نویسنده: پائولو کوئیلو؛ مترجم: آرش حجازی؛ تهران، کاروان، چاپ دوم سال1384، در436ص؛ شابک9648497303؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان برزیل - سده ی 20معنوان: ظاهر، مترجم: سوسن اردکانی؛ تهران، نگارستان کتاب، سال1385، شابک9648155402؛ در420ص؛ عنوان: زهیر، مترجم: دل آرا قهرمان؛ تهران، نشر فرزان روز، سال1394؛ در329ص؛ شابک9789643214319؛ عنوان: زهیر، مترجم: زهره معصومی؛ مشهد، آوای رعنا، سال1396؛ در350ص؛ شابک 9786007725009؛ زَهیر (به پرتغالی: او زهیر) عنوان رمانی از «پائولو کوئلیو» است؛ نامی که خود «کوئلیو» از واژه ی عربی «الظاهر» اقتباس کرده؛ اما از آنجا که بار معنایی «ظاهر» فارسی با همتای عربی‌ خویش یکی نبود، در نهایت با مشورت با نویسنده، نام کنونی «زهیر» بر نسخه ی فارسی کتاب نهاده شد؛ عنوان «زهیر» از داستان «خورخه لوئیس بورخس» اقتباس شده «بورخس» مفهوم «زهیر» را وامدار به سنت اسلامی میداند، و میاننگارند، در آغاز سده ی هجدهم میلادی، مطرح شده باشد؛ «زهیر یا الظاهر» در عربی، یعنی «بیش از حد تابناک»، «مرئی»، «حاضر»، چیزی که نمیتوان نادیده اش گرفت؛ چیزی یا کسی که، وقتی برای نخستین بار، با آن ارتباط پیدا میکنیم، اندیشه ی ما را از آن خود میکند، تا جاییکه نمیتوانیم به چیزهای دیگر بیندیشیم؛ نقل از کتاب: (دو آتش نشان وارد جنگلی میشوند، تا آتش کوچکی را خاموش کنند؛ آخر کار وقتی از جنگل بیرون میآیند و میروند کنار رودخانه، صورت یکیشان کثیف، و پر از خاکستر، و صورت آن یکی به شکل معصومانه ای تمیز است؛ پرسش: کدامشان صورتش را میشوید؟ اشتباه کردید، آن که صورتش کثیف است، به آن یکی نگاه میکند، و فکر میکند صورت خودش هم همانطور است؛ اما آن که صورتش تمیز است میبیند که سرتاپای رفیقش را غبار گرفته است، و به خودش میگوید: حتما من هم کثیفم، باید خودم را تمیز کنم؛*برایم دنیایی خلق کن که وقتی احتیاج دارم بتوانم به آن پناه ببرم، دنیایی که آنقدر دور نباشد، که به نظر برسد مستقل از تو زندگی میکنم و آنقدر نزدیک نباشد که به نظر برسد میخواهم به دنیای تو تجاوز کنم)؛ پایان نقلدر این رمان، «پائولو» ضمن اشارات فراوان، به زندگی شخصی خویش، داستانی بسیار شجاعانه، ارائه داده، آکنده از عناصری که هر خوانشگری را، به بازاندیشی، در کنش و باورهای خود، وامی‌دارد؛ راوی (نویسنده) همسرش «استر» را دوست دارد؛ همسر او، ناپدید میشود، و ردی از او نمیماند...؛ از او فقط «زهیر» میماند؛ «زهیر» با یک نظر ساده و همان اندیشه ی گذرا، آغاز میشود، اما ذهن و روح انسان را، تسخیر میکند؛ نویسنده ای مشهور ‍پی میبرد، که همسرش که خبرنگار جنگ است، ناپدید شده، و اثری از او نیست؛ هرچند، گذر زمان برای این نویسنده، موفقیت بیشتر، و عشقی تازه به همراه میآورد، اما غیبت همسرش، او را سرگشته نگاه میدارد؛ چه بر سر همسرش آمده؟ او را دزدیده اند، کشته اند، یا فقط از زندگی زناشویی اش خسته شده و رفته؟ جستجوی نویسنده، به دنبال همسرش؛ و حقیقت زندگی خودش؛ او را از «فرانسه» به «اس‍پانیا»، «کرواسی»، و سرانجام به دشتهای غم انگیز و زیبای «آسیای میانه» میکشاند، و فراتر از اینها، ایشان را از محیط امن دنیای خودش، به جاده ای کاملا ناشناخته میبرد، به دنبال ادراکی تازه از معنای عشق و قدرت سرنوشت؛تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 07/10/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 03/10/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

Uno de mis libros favoritos de todos los tiempos.Te deja con grandes decisiones a tomar en tu vida.Excelente.

I have to say, at times I found myself obsessed with this book about obsession. At times, it didn't quite flow or seemed to bring in random points, but I felt like I just "got it" and completely understood where he was coming from. Coelho's words resonated deeply within me, and in fact, helped me to "see" and unlock some feelings that I haven't been able to understand for quite some time. In that sense, it was like an Eat, Pray, Love for me. Not to compare authors, literary styles, or anything like that - I'm only making the comparison in terms of what both books evoked in me. So for those of who you weren't such fans of Ms. Gilbert's book, don't let that dissuade you from reading this one. A few quotes from the Zahir that I particularly liked were: "...I came to realize that I was always looking for myself in the women I loved." "...I had convinced myself that I could only be happy with her, not because I loved her more than anything and anyone in the world, but because I thought only she could understand me; she knew my likes, my eccentricities, my way of seeing the world.......I was used to seeing the world through her eyes." "...suffering occurs when we want other people to love us in the way we imagine we want to be loved, and not in the way that love should manifest itself - free and untrammeled, guiding us with its force and driving us on."

A great book for anyone struggling with attachment or ownership of something that you love."I heard other people speaking in the name of freedom and the more they defended this unique right, the more enslaved the seemed to be to the parent's wishes, to a marriage in which they had promised to stay with the other person "for the rest of their lives," to the bathroom scales, to their diet, to the half-finished projects, to lovers to whom they were incapable of saying "No", or "It's over", to weekends when they were obliged to have lunch with people they didn't even like. Slaves to luxury, to the apperance of luxury, to the appearance of the appearance of luxury. Slaves to a life they had not chosen, but which they had decided to live because someone had managed to convince them that it was all for the best. And so their identical days and nights passed, days and nights in which adventure was just a word in a book or an image on the television that was always on, and whenever a door opened, they would say "I'm not interested, I'm not in the mood."

I kept reading it and finished it in a short time.... this means that i love it.... It helps you understand the real meaning of life...how can you reach your goals... "the energy of love" which i believe in