Adultery by Paulo Coelho
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A book that must be read by every man and woman who attained the stage of boredom in their marriage and feel like cheating upon each other. A wonderful book written by Paulo Coelho, who holds the record of highest translated books in the world.

Storyline: This is a story of Linda, a married journalist of Switzerland, who narrates her journey through self realization of the feeling called True Love. She, even after having the best of world with her, will not be able to cope up with life and falls into depression due to an unknown feeling called loneliness. A mother of two, a successful journalist profession and wife of the top 100 richest businessmen in the country, she complains of nothing but loneliness. One day, she happens to interview her teenage lover and present active budding politician, Jacob Konig. There and then onwards, she crosses all her limits and gets into a passionate lustful extramarital relationship with him. Jacob reciprocates due to the same feeling from his end. This continues until one day when Jacob’s wife suspects and confronts Linda in front of her husband about her relationship with Jacob. This is when Linda’s husband supports her morally and gives her a feeling that he truly loves her and shall forgive her for all her adultery with Jacob. Linda feels ashamed for whatever she has done and repents for her adultery through her realization of her self and the true meaning of life and the means to eternity called Love. She abandons her past relationship with Jacob and starts afresh with her loving husband and beautiful family which is still with her, through tough times.

Pros: The author’s mastery in bringing out a philosophical subject through a passionate story is highly admirable in this book. Every married couple should understand the fact that their partner’s life is dependent on the other’s ability to exhibit the love that they carry in their hearts every now and then, till they die. That is the only way for the married partner that he or she is still being loved and not being neglected or felt bored of. Many philosophies on Love, Jealousy, Freedom, Physical Attraction, Spiritual Confidence, etc have been touched upon with beautiful quotes. The way in which a woman feels when she feels neglected by her busy husband and how monotonous her life can turn into through rearing her children, and maintaining her home is narrated by Linda exquisitely. Her sexual attraction to Jacob, according to her was just because of this loneliness she experienced and the resulting depression and boredom in her life.
This book gives a great insight to almost all modern married couples who are so busy that they seldom recognize the fact that there is someone who is craving for the lovely touch and words everyday, with which they started their married life. One of the best and needed topics chosen by the author for the love starved marriages of today.

Cons: Though this is the story which happens in most of the monotonous marriages of today, neither of the married partners would like to read or witness that the other is cheating on them. Very rare are husbands like that of Linda or wives like Marianne to forgive adultery of their counterparts and continue living and loving them for the rest of their lives. And how moral is on the part of people like Linda to have a lustful physical relationship with her ex-boyfriend and later wipe it off in the name of self realization and continue her life as usual.

My favorite quotes in the book

“When we love someone, we’re not satisfied with knowing only the person’s soul- we also want to understand the person’s body. Is it necessary? I don’t know but instinct encourages us. There is no set time for it to take place, no rules to follow. Nothing beats that moment of revelation when shyness loses ground to boldness.”

“We are’nt who we want to be. We are what society demands. We are what our parents choose. We don’t want to disappoint anyone: we have a great need to be loved. So we smother the best in us. Gradually, the light of our dreams turns into the monster of our nightmares. They become things not done, possibilities not lived.”

My rating is 4 out of 5


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