Paulo Coelho
The Zahir: A Novel of Obsession
The Devil and Miss Prym: A Novel of Temptation
By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
*We have the ones in Red
Our perception of life is influenced with the tradition and standards which are considered correct. The big challenge is to discover our authentic self, by asking questions and searching for answers. The work of Kahlil Gibran has helped many of the ones who are searching for these questions and enjoying the adventure of personal discovery. But where the kindness of soul of Kahlil Gibran is revealed is in his letters to Mary Haskell, a great love of his life.
Aiming to uncover the man who stands behind The Prophet, Paulo Coelho, the author of The Alchemist, has compiled a part of this intimate correspondence. In it, Gibran reveals an internal world of pain and laughter which served as the force for the inspiration of his beautiful work.
Every few decades a book is published that changes the lives of its readers forever. The Alchemist is such a book. With over a million and a half copies sold around the world, The Alchemist has already established itself as a modern classic, universally admired. Paulo Coelho's charming fable, now available in English for the first time, will enchant and inspire an even wider audience of readers for generations to come. The Alchemist is the magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure as extravagant as any ever found. From his home in Spain he journeys to the markets of Tangiers and across the Egyptian desert to a fateful encounter with the alchemist. The story of the treasures Santiago finds along the way teaches us, as only a few stories have done, about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, learning to read the omens strewn along life's path, and, above all, following our dreams.
The Zahir: A Novel of Obsession
Set in Paris and in the enchanting landscape of Central Asia, this novel by the author of The Alchemist and Eleven Minutes follows the journey of a man obsessed with finding the wife who left him without an explanation." "The narrator of The Zahir is a bestselling novelist who lives in Paris and enjoys all the privileges that money and celebrity bring. His wife of ten years, Esther, is a war correspondent who, despite her professional success and freedom from the conventional constraints of marriage, is facing an existential crisis. When she disappears along with a friend, Mikhail, who may or may not be her lover, the authorities question the narrator. Was Esther kidnapped, killed, or did she simply abandon 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, the man with whom Esther was last seen, finds the narrator and promises to take him to his wife. In his attempt to recapture a love lost, the narrator discovers something unexpected about himself.
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 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."
The Devil and Miss Prym: A Novel of Temptation
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 of them will face questions of life, death and power, and each of them will have to choose their own path. Will they choose good or evil? The remote village of Viscos is the setting for this extraordinary struggle. 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. In this stunning new novel, Paulo Coelho dramatizes the struggle within every soul between light and darkness, and its relevance to our everyday struggles: to dare to follow our dreams, to have the courage to be different and to master the fear that prevents us 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.
By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
In all stories of love there is always something that moves us closer to eternity and the essence of life because the stories of love hold within all the secrets in the world.
But what happens when shyness prevents an adolescent love affair from developing? And what happens when, 11 years later, destiny brings the lovers together again? In the meantime, life has taught her to be strong and to hide her feelings. As for him, he is now a handsome spiritual teacher – with a reputation for performing miracles – who has turned to religion as a refuge from his inner conflicts.
Together they take a journey that is initially fraught with difficulty as blame and resentment resurface after years of being hidden. But by the River Piedra, in a small village in the French Pyrenees, they find a way to discuss many of life's big questions and re-evaluate their won special relationship.
By The River Piedra is a wonderful novel, with a poetic and transcendent narrative, that reflects all the mysteries of love and life.
Veronika seems to have everything she could wish for. She goes to popular night spots, she meets and dates attractive young men and yet she's not happy. Something is lacking in her life. That's why, in the morning of 11th November 1997, Veronika Decides to Die. After taking an overdose, Veronika is told she has only a few days to live.
This story follows Veronika through these intense days as to her surprise, she finds herself drawn into the enclosed world of the local hospital she is staying in. In this heightened state she discovers things she has never really allowed herself to feel before: hatred, fear, curiosity, love - even sexual awakening. Her experiences lead her gradually to realise that every second of her existence is a choice between living and dying. Paulo Coelho's new book is about those who do not fit into patterns considered normal by society. It is about madness and the need to find an alternative way of living for people who frequently have to face other people's prejudices because they think in a different way.
"There are inevitable moments of misfortune which interrupt our lives. However, they happen for a reason." Sometimes the world seems to have conspired against us, and so we ask ourselves, "Why does this have to happen to me?" Confronted by the inevitable, some of us become discouraged; others, however, grow stronger and increase their understanding.
The story of the prophet Elijah is an invaluable lesson of hope for the contemporary man. To what point can we predict our own destiny? This is the question that hangs in the air over The Fifth Mountain, and every one of us has tried to grasp it.
Evoking all the drama and intrigue of the colourful, chaotic world of the Middle East, Paulo Coelho turns the trials of Elijah into an intensely moving and inspiring story – one that powerfully brings out the universal themes of how faith and love can ultimately triumph over.
In 1986, Paulo Coelho sets out for The Pilgrimage towards Santiago de Compostela. "In those days –says the author-, my spiritual quest was linked to the idea that there were secrets, mysterious ways, and people capable of understanding and controlling things which would be unavailable to most mortals. I thought that what leads us to grasping the mystery of life, must be difficult and complicated." This journey becomes a truly initiatory experience, and Paulo is transformed for ever as he learns to understand the nature of truth through the simplicity of life: he learns that "the extraordinary is always found in the way of the common people." As a writer, he devotes himself to show, in a plain and fluid style, the richness of our inner reality with the intention of sharing his experiences with all of us. Thus, The Pilgrimage has a very important place in the work, not just because it is the first of his major books, after which came The Alchemist, but because of the complete way in which it expresses the humanity of Paulo's philosophy and the depth of his search.
The true story of the Irish enchantress Brida O'Fern, and her path through the Wicca pagan tradition. Brida is only 21 years old when she meets a magician and asks to become a witch. The book compares the two classical forms of teaching, the Revelation (Tradition of the Sun) and the ritualistic (Tradition of the Moon). Love is the only way we have to bridge over to the spiritual world. When we love, we want to be better than we already are, and love makes us better.
Why is it that we destroy the things we love most? This is the question Paulo Coelho faces in this story of his confrontation with his past. 'The Valkyries' is a compelling account of his journey, as Paulo and his wife embark on a forty day quest into the searing heat of the Mojave Desert, where they encounter 'The Valkyries', strange warrior women who travel the desert on motorcycles.
This is not only a modern day adventure, it is also an exploration of one man's battle with self doubt and fear, as well as a true story of two people striving to understand one another through adversity. Ultimately, 'The Valkyries' delivers a powerful message about forgiving our past and believing in our future.
Maktub is a collection of stories, parabolas that don't pretend to constitute an apprenticeship but offer a coloured treasure of fragmented wisdom from different cultures. Those short stories, inspired to the writer by vary different sources and folklores, were born from Paulo Coelho's collaboration with the daily Folha de São Paulo. Coelho selected texts published between June 1993 and June 1994, to offer readers around the world this Maktub, which deepens through the prism of a universal mosaic of oral tradition. According to Paulo Coelho himself, "Maktub is not an advice book, but an exchange of experiences", an excellent occasion to reflect and meet oneself again.
Based on the book "The Greatest Thing in the World", in which the priest Henry Drummond discourses on a section of St. Paul's letter to the Corinthians.
Our perception of life is influenced with the tradition and standards which are considered correct. The big challenge is to discover our authentic self, by asking questions and searching for answers. The work of Kahlil Gibran has helped many of the ones who are searching for these questions and enjoying the adventure of personal discovery. But where the kindness of soul of Kahlil Gibran is revealed is in his letters to Mary Haskell, a great love of his life.
Aiming to uncover the man who stands behind The Prophet, Paulo Coelho, the author of The Alchemist, has compiled a part of this intimate correspondence. In it, Gibran reveals an internal world of pain and laughter which served as the force for the inspiration of his beautiful work.