Adultery

Details of the Book

No. of Pages   : 272 pages

ISBN               : 1101874082 (ISBN13: 9781101874080)

Language        : English

From the book blurb

The book Adultery portrays the story of an independent woman Linda, in her 30s, who has an almost perfect life; a content and stable marriage, a caring husband, sweet little kids and a rewarding journalism career. Through the regular everyday life, she starts to question the dullness and boredom of her passing days. She tends to be dissatisfied with her life, until she meets her high-school boyfriend, Jacob, who is a successful politician now.

With him, she revives the zeal and craze that were previously missing in her life. They get involved into an affair which she knows can lead her to difficult circumstance, yet, she finds the affair to be really exciting. With this transformation, she is standing at a life-altering turn of her life.

The book was originally written in Portuguese, Coelho’s native language. The English edition was published in August 2014.

Author

Paulo Coelho, born in Rio de Janeiro in 1947, is one of the bestselling and most influential authors in the world. The Alchemist, The Pilgrimage, The Valkyries, Brida, Veronika Decides to Die, Eleven Minutes among others, have sold 150 million copies worldwide.

What I think

What is a perfect life? Caring spouse, loving children, challenging career and enough money to meet not only the basic necessities but also to indulge in some occasional luxury? Well, isn’t perfect life a very subjective term, considering the fact that grass is always greener on the other side? Well, don’t single men and women crave for a partner and committed people desire space? In a way, that’s the beauty of life and the root cause for most of the problems in life. Often, these problems may not even be real, but a mere byproduct of overthinking and needless to say, loneliness, After all, the worst form of loneliness is to be surrounded by people, yet feel like an isolated island with no one to talk to!  Paulo Coelho’s Adultery deals with this very aspect of life. It dissects monotonous life into simple and smaller figments and explains how it can affect a person’s life.

As the book blurb rightly describes, Linda is a married woman with two kids. Her kids loves her. Her husband adores her. She enjoys cooking and taking care of the family. She likes her job. In short, for any onlooker her life is perfect – both personally and professionally. However, she feels void from within. She feels stressed and frustrated and craves for some adventure and fun; similar to the days when she was young and single. She tries recreating the lost spark and forces her to understand that the husband is none other than the person she had once loved so dearly. But she miserably fails at it until she meets her childhood sweetheart under professional set-up; and a clandestine affair follows. Although she is aware of the fact that such adultery could ruin not only her life but also the lives of her children and husband, she finds it difficult to resist. The rest of the book is about Linda’s journey of self-discovery in which she understands the basics of life.

As usual, Paulo Coelho’s words swims through our mind, reaches to our heart and touches our soul. The words flow with rehearsed ease and it is surely an assured page-turner. Most of the sentences convey truth and provokes thoughts. Linda becomes relatable. However, her husband emerges as the hero; not only a perfect gentleman but also a sweetheart!

Well, Adultery deals with a very sensitive topic which is often viewed as a taboo. But the author has handled it so aesthetically that it hints the reason for the same:

“What kills a relationship between two people is precisely the lack of challenge, the feeling that nothing is new anymore. We need to continue to be a surprise for each other.”

The above quote perfectly summarizes the feelings of Linda and several married people and also couples in long term relationships. As the years pass, people start taking each other for granted and fail to make small efforts to surprise one another. They tend to assume that it is not quite necessary to reiterate love for the better half. Adultery emphasizes that the heart has to stay young; no matter how old you are. It says that it is alright to share sweet nothings just like a teenager experiencing first love!

On the flip side, the book explores adultery only in the form of physical intimacy; it would have been remarkable if emotional adultery was also included.

In short, Adultery is the answer for many who try to understand what is wrong in their life or in their relationship!

Go for it!!!

Rating

3.5/5

Some words that stole my heart

©       Beware when making a woman cry. God is counting her tears.

©       We are the ones who create the messes in our heads. It does not come from outside.

©       YOU don’t choose your life; it chooses you. There’s no point asking why life has reserved certain joys or griefs, you just accept them and carry on.

©       When we release our dark side, it will completely overshadow the best in us.

©       Buddhists say that a fixed smile, however false, lights up the soul.

And many more…