Zahir Paulo Coelho

Reading a story by Paulo Coelho is like going to a journey to Sweden to end up in China

he always use this pattern, at the first few pages he declares that he's in point "A" and he want the novel to end up in point "B", in every page and line he stress on this fact. by the end of the story the reader is completely convinced and prepared to be in point "B" but at this point the reader discover that point "B" in fact is point "C" and that there's no such thing as point "B"

a great example is elZahir (الظهير)
which is an arabic word means the one who's behind and from time to time jump to the front and then move to the background again

the story is about a husband who's a famous writer and a wife reporter, both successful happy
suddenly the wife disappear, at first he thought she was killed or kidnapped, but day by day he get more and more to understand that his wife disappeared by her own free will and that she is waiting for him to find her and join her where she's
where he should find out, and he should accept the fact that even if he did find her she may be doesn't want him anymore.

so reading the story you'll think it's about a chase of evidence and clues to find out the wife, but this isn't true the story is about the husband and how in searching for his wife he discovered himself more and more
understand his life and emotions, at the end it's not about finding the wife but finding himself
I'll not say the end of it, so who didn't read it have fun do it
but at the end everything was revealed to him: his wife, his life and himself

something in the end bothered me too much (when you read it you'll understand) but that's how the writer thought it should end his story
this is one of the best story i've ever read, because everyone has his/her own zahir