The narrator of The Zahir is a bestselling novelist who
lives in Paris and enjoys all the privileges money and celebrity bring.
His wife of ten years, Esther, is a war correspondent who has
disappeared along with a friend, Mikhail, who may or may not be her
lover.

Was Esther kidnapped, murdered, or did she simply escape a
marriage that left her unfulfilled? The narrator doesn't have any
answers, but he has plenty of questions of his own. Then one day Mikhail
finds the narrator and promises to reunite him with his wife. In his
attempt to recapture a lost love, the narrator discovers something
unexpected about himself.