The Witch of Portobello

I bought Paulo Coelho's "The Witch of Portobello" with great xpectations remembering his success with 'The Alchemist'. Ofcourse my xpectations were fed with a great start with the story of Athena or Sherine as the author calls her some times...First hundred n odd pages were very good as so many people try to describe the character of Athena...But as and how i turned rest of the pages everything started going above my head all of a sudden...

Only way i could relate with the character and the story was by drawing similarity with one more book i had read earlier of S.L.Bhyrappa i.e.'Anweshana'.

In both the stories, the life of the protagonist is narrated by someone related to him/ her. Both the protagonists are in constant search of their soul and integrity which is above any normal human understanding.In doing so, they go from one place to another, they try out different things never sticking onto any one thing or any one person. In the course of time they hurt all around them...only difference is that in W.O.B she survives all the difficulties and finds ultimate realisation but whereas in Anweshana he loses his battle...
Like Anweshana, W.O.B also conveys certain hard core truths about the life. So if i look at W.O.B through the eyes of Anweshana i must call it a good book but otherwise not.