ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PAULO COELHO was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the city where he now lives. His own life has in many ways been as varied and unusual as the protagonists of his internationally acclaimed novels.
Like them, Paulo Coelho has followed a dream in a quest for fulfillment. His own dream, to be a writer, met with frustration throughout much of his early adult life, a time in which he worked at various professions, some of them materially rewarding but spiritually unfulfilling. “I always knew,” he says, “that my Personal Legend, to use a term from alchemy, was to write.” He was thirty-eight when he published his first book.
In 1970, after deciding that law school was not for him, he traveled through much of South America, North Africa, Mexico, and Europe. Returning to Brazil after two years, he began a successful career as popular songwriter. In 1974, he was imprisoned for a short time by the military dictatorship then ruling in Brazil. In 1980, he experienced one of the defining moments of his life: he walked the five hundred-plus mile Road of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain. On this ancient highway, used for centuries by pilgrims from France to get to the cathedral said to house the remains of St. James, he achieved a self-awareness and a spiritual awakening that he later described in The Pilgrimage.
Paulo Coelho once said that following your dream is like learning a foreign language; you will make mistakes but you will get there in the end. In 1988, he published The Alchemist, a novel that
explores this theme, and it launched him as an international bestselling author. Specifically, Paulo Coelho is recognized for his powerful storytelling technique and the profound spiritual insights he blends seamlessly into his parables. Since then, The Alchemist has sold more than twenty million copies worldwide and has been translated into some fifty-six languages. In addition to The Pilgrimage and The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho has written luminous novels about the different streams of our lives, including By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept, The Valkyries, The Fifth Mountain, and Veronika Decides to Die. A winner of numerous literary prizes, Paulo Coelho is also a prominent speaker for humanitarian causes.
In 1999, he received a Crystal Award for Artistic Achievement at the Davos Economic Forum Conference.
International Acclaim for Paulo Coelho’s
The Alchemist
“The story has the comic charm, dramatic tension, and psychological intensity of a fairy tale, but it’s full of specific wisdom as well…. A sweetly exotic tale for young and old alike.”
— Publishers Weekly
“Beneath this novel’s compelling story and the shimmering elegance with which it’s told lies a bedrock of wisdom about following one’s heart.”
— Booklist
“As memorable and meaningful as Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince. ”
— Austin American-Statesman
“A touching, inspiring fable.”
— Indianapolis Star
“A little poke in the ribs from on high.”
— Detroit Free Press
“The Alchemist is a fabulous success.”
— Der Spiegel (Germany)
“A remarkable tale about the most magical of all journeys: the quest to fulfill one’s destiny. I recommend The Alchemist to anyone who is passionately committed to claiming the life of their dreams—
today.”
—Anthony Robbins, author of
Awaken the Giant Within
“An entrepreneurial tale of universal wisdom we can apply to the business of our own lives.”
—Spencer Johnson, M.D., author of
Who Moved My Cheese
“An adventure story full of magic and wisdom.”
—Rudolfo Anaya, author of Bless Me, Ultima
“The Alchemist is a beautiful book about magic, dreams and the treasures we seek elsewhere and then find at our doorstep.”
—Madonna in Sonntag-Aktuell (Germany)
“The Alchemist is an unabashed delight and inspirational wonder. This fable is a roseate amalgam of spiritual quest, existential puzzle, lovely sensitivity, and deep strength.”
—Malcolm Boyd, author of
Are You Running with Me, Jesus?
“Paulo Coelho knows the secret of literary alchemy.”
—Kenzaburo Oé, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
“A most tender and gentle story. It is a rare gem of a book, and will most certainly touch the very core of every heart earnestly seeking its own destiny on the journey of life.”
—Gerald G. Jampolsky, M.D., coauthor of
Change Your Mind, Change Your Life and Love Is Letting Go of Fear
