The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream
(1993)
A novel by Paulo Coelho

Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who dreams of travelling the world in search of a worldly treasure as fabulous as any ever found. From his home in Spain he journeys to the markets of Tangiers, and from there into the Egyptian desert, where a fateful encounter with the alchemist awaits him.

Just like “The Alchemist”, “By the river Piedra…” is a story about a journey symbolizing the route towards self-discovery. “By the river Piedra…”, however, could more easily be described as a story of love, as it strives to show that “true love is an act of total surrender”. At a deeper level, Coelho also gives the message that as there are no rules when it comes to love, there are no rules when it comes to worshiping God: “to love is to be in communion with the other, and to discover in that other the spark of God”.

In this best-selling novel Coelho talks about a long-forgotten aspect of God: His feminine side, the so-called “Goddess”. The feminine face of God has been, as Coelho explains, present in every religion on the face of the earth: paganism (Great Mother), the ancient fertility goddess, Isis, the Virgin Mary. This Goddess, presented as generator of all life, is present in the love the two main characters feel for each other. It is as if Her presence haunts their relationship. The monk turned Goddess-worshiper at first thinks he’s faced with the dilemma of staying with the woman he loves and abandoning the life that fulfils him, or venturing on his planned mission to change the world. In the end he discovers that a choice need not be made: to love a woman is to love life itself.

A community devoured by greed, cowardice, and fear. A man persecuted by the ghosts of his painful past. A young woman searching for happiness. In one eventful week, each will face questions of life, death, and power, and each will choose a path. Will they choose good or evil?

In the remote village of Viscos — a village too small to be on any map, a place where time seems to stand still — a stranger arrives, carrying with him a backpack containing a notebook and eleven gold bars. He comes searching for the answer to a question that torments him: Are human beings, in essence, good or evil? In welcoming the mysterious foreigner, the whole village becomes an accomplice to his sophisticated plot, which will forever mark their lives.

Paulo Coelho’s stunning novel explores the timeless struggle between good and evil, and brings to our everyday dilemmas fresh perspective: incentive to master the fear that prevents us from following our dreams, from being different, from truly living.

The Devil and Miss Prym is a story charged with emotion, in which the integrity of being human meets a terrifying test.

The story is about a renowned author who discovers that his wife, a war correspondent, has disappeared, leaving no trace. Was she kidnapped, blackmailed, or simply bored with their marriage? The unrest she causes is as strong as the attraction she exerts.

Though time brings more success and new love, he remains mystified – and increasingly fascinated – by her absence.

According to writer Jorge Luis Borges, the idea of Zahir comes from the Islamic tradition. Zahir, in Arabic means visibility, present, incapable of going unnoticed. It is someone or something which, once we have come into contact with them, gradually occupies our every thought, until we can think of nothing else.

A new, international bestseller by the author of The Alchemist tells the story of Maria, a young girl from a Brazilian village, whose first innocent brushes with love leave her heartbroken. At a tender age, she becomes convinced that she will never find true love, instead believing that “Love is a terrible thing that will make you suffer.” A chance meeting in Rio takes her to Geneva, where she dreams of finding fame and fortune. Instead, she ends up working as a prostitute.
In Geneva, Maria drifts further and further away from love as she develops a fascination with sex. Eventually, Maria’s despairing view of love is put to the test when she meets a handsome young painter. In this odyssey of self-discovery, Maria has to choose between pursuing a path of darkness, sexual pleasure for its own sake, or risking everything to find her own “inner light” and the possibility of sacred sex, sex in the context of love.

In this gripping and daring new novel, Paulo Coelho sensitively explores the sacred nature of sex and love and invites us to confront our own prejudices and demons and embrace our own “inner light.”