B R I D A

A N ov e l

F

P a u l o

C o e l h o

T r a n s l at e d

f ro m t h e P o rt u g u e s e b y M a rg a r e t J u l l C o s ta

For N.D.L., who made the miracles happen,for Christina, who is one of those miracles,and for Brida

. . . what woman having ten silver coins,if she loses one of them,

does not light a lamp, sweep the house,and search carefully until she finds it?

When she has found it, she calls togetherher friends and neighbors, saying,

“Rejoice with me, for I have found the cointhat I had lost.”

Luke 15:8–9

Contents

Epigraph iii

Warning vi

Prologue vii

Ireland

August 1983–March 1984

Summer and Autumn

1

Winter and Spring 91

About the Author

Other Books by Paulo Coelho

Credits

Cover

Copyright

About the Publisher

F

Warning

In my book The Pilgrimage, I replaced two of the practices of RAM with exercises in perception learned in the days when I worked in drama. Although the results were, strictly speaking, the same, I received a severe reprimand from my Teacher. “There may well be quicker or easier methods, that doesn’t matter; what matters is that the Tradition remains unchanged,” he said.

For this reason, the few rituals described in Brida are the same as those practiced over the centuries by the Tradition of the Moon—a specific tradition that requires experience and practice.

Practicing such rituals without guidance is dangerous, inadvisable, unnecessary, and can greatly hinder the Spiritual Search.

Paulo Coelho

F

Prologue

We used to sit until late at night in a café in Lourdes. I was a pilgrim on the sacred Road of Rome and still had many more days to travel in search of my Gift. She was Brida O’Fern and was in charge of a certain stretch of that road.

On one such night, I asked if she remembered having felt especially moved when she arrived at a particular abbey that forms part of the star-shaped trail followed by Initiates in the Pyrenees.

“I’ve never been there,” she replied.

I was surprised. She did, after all, have a Gift.

“All roads lead to Rome,” said Brida, using an old proverb to tell me that Gifts could be awoken anywhere. “I walked my Road to Rome in Ireland.”

During our subsequent meetings, she told me the story of

v iii

P r o l o g u e

her search. When she finished, I asked if, one day, I could write it down.

She agreed initially, but whenever we met after that, she kept raising obstacles. She asked me to change the names of those involved; she wanted to know what kind of people would read the book and how they would be likely to react.

“I’ve no idea,” I said. “But I don’t think that’s why you’re creating all these problems.”

“You’re right,” she said. “It’s because it seems to me such a personal story, and I’m not sure anyone else would get much out of it.”