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Summary
Author Notes
Paulo Coelho was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on August 24, 1947. As a teenager, he wanted to become a writer, but his parents wanted him to pursue a more substantial and secure career. At the age of 17, his introversion and opposition to his parents led them to commit him to a mental institution. He escaped three times before being released at the age of 20. Once released, he abandoned his ideas of becoming a writer and enrolled in law school to please his parents. He stayed in law school for one year.
In 1986, Coelho walked the 500-plus mile Road of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain, a turning point in his life. On the path, he had a spiritual awakening, which he described in his book The Pilgrimage.
Before becoming a full-time author, he worked as theatre director and actor, lyricist, and journalist. He wrote song lyrics for many famous performers in Brazilian music including Elis Regina, Rita Lee, and Raul Seixas. His first book, Hell Archives, was published in 1982. He has written over 25 books since then including The Alchemist, Brida, The Fifth Mountain, The Devil and Miss Prym, Eleven Minutes, The Zahir, The Witch of Portobello, Like a Flowing River, and Adultery. He received numerous awards including Las Pergolas Prize, The Budapest Prize, Nielsen Gold Book Award, and the Grand Prix Litteraire Elle. In 1996, he founded the Paulo Coelho Institute, which provides aid to children and elderly people with financial problems. In 2007, Coelho was named a Messenger of Peace to the United Nations.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this chimerical tale, protagonist Paolo embarks on a journey to remedy his dissatisfaction with life, a frustration he feels despite enjoying the accoutrements of success. Given that his world includes clairvoyance, Divine Energy, and time-travel, Paolo's is not the usual existential crisis. His present-day troubles, in fact, can be traced to betrayals during a previous incarnation that took place during the Inquisition. When he encounters Hilal, a woman he wronged, complications arise from their shared experience in The Aleph: "the point at which everything is in the same place at the same time." Given the couple's history, Paolo's response is curiously practical and distant: "reopening old wounds is neither easy nor particularly important. The only justification is that the knowledge acquired might help me to gain a better understanding of the present." Although the novel requires ample suspension of disbelief, there's no better author to serve such a work than Coelho (The Alchemist)-his main character bears the weight of the sometimes ambiguous and wandering narrative with pithy reflections. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
The latest spirituality-lite novel from Coelho (The Winner Stands Alone, 2009, etc.).The narrative focuses on a character named Paulo who has had a wildly successful novel (The Alchemist, 1993) and who is embarking on a book-signing binge on the Trans-Siberian railway, stopping at various spots from Moscow to Vladivostock. Paulo, it seems, is in the midst of a spiritual crisis, for life has lost its savor. His spiritual guru, cryptically named J., advises him to reconnect to his life by getting into the present moment, a mystic space called the Aleph. Paulo agrees, for after all he claims that, "To live is to experience things, not sit around pondering the meaning of life"as though any good could come out ofthatsort of reflective activity. Paulo's wife is all in favor of having him take this journeyor perhaps she's interested merely in getting him out of the house for a while. Just before the journey begins, Paulo meets Hilal, a violinist who can bring him to tears with the beauty of her playing. She seems familiar to Paulo, however, and it turns out that he's known her beforeroughly 500 years before, when he had been a monk and she had come before the Inquisition for having had sexual relations with Satan. They've both been given another opportunity together in the present so Paulo can make amends, both to Hilal and to several other women he'd mistreated in cosmic time. While he finds himself sexually attracted to Hilal, he remains technically chastewell, kind of, though it's possible his wife might not see it that way.For readers who admire books filled with goofy yet endearing spiritual clichs such as, "Death is just a door into another dimension."]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
If you love mysticism Coelho-style, as many readers around the world do, chances are you will love his latest spiritually transformative odyssey. At the heart of the narrative, Paulo, profoundly disillusioned by contemporary reality, plagued by inner conflict, and losing faith in himself and the world he inhabits, sets off on a highly personal quest that defies time and space. Traveling around the world, he journeys back into his own reincarnations, understanding that his path is reflected in the eyes of others, and that if I want to find myself, I need that map. Although he encounters a diversity of significant friends along the way, his reconnection with a woman he loved and heartlessly betrayed over 500 years ago is the key to his reawakening and redemption. Another magical mystery tour full of spiritually challenging ideas and ideals from the always inspirational Coelho.--Flanagan, Margaret Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Having gotten into a stale routine in life and reaching a spiritual plateau, 59-year-old Paulo is encouraged by his mentor to travel on another spiritual pilgrimage to reinvigorate his faith. His book signings take him through Europe and Africa, and his journey culminates on the Trans-Siberian Railway across Russia. Fatefully, he ends up traveling with Yao, his translator not only in language but in the various spiritual situations Paulo encounters. But it is Hilal, a young Turkish violinist, who is at the crux of Paulo's problems. She is the reincarnation of a woman whom Paulo had loved and betrayed in a previous life 500 years in the past. It is only by redeeming his past transgressions that his spirituality can progress now. Verdict Creating an amalgam of faith and mysticism, internationally renowned Coelho (The Alchemist) here showcases the cross-cultural need for love, hope, and redemption. His latest visionary novel (although the author in a recent New York Times interview[nyti.ms/qH7kPZ] considers this work nonfiction) once again provokes thought and introspection. Sure to be popular with his devotees. [See Prepub Alert, 3/7/11.]-Joy Gunn, Henderson Dist. P.L., NV (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Excerpts
Excerpts
"Remember the Aleph. Remember what you felt at that moment. Try to bring into this sacred place something that you don't know but that is there in your heart. If necessary, think of a favorite symphony and let it guide yo to where you need to go. That's all that matters now. Words, explanations, and questions won't help; they'll only confuse something that is already quite complex enough. Forgive me, but let that forgiveness come from the depths of your soul, the same soul that passes from one body to another and learns as it travels through nonexistent time and infinite space. "We can never wound the soul, just as we can never wound God, but we can become imprisoned by our memories, and that makes our lives wretched even when we have everything we need in order to be happy. If only we could be entirely here, as if we had just woken up on planet Earth and found ourselves inside a golden temple, but we can't." "I don't see why I should forgive the man I love. Or perhaps only for one thing, for never having heard those same words on his lips." A smell of incense begins to waft toward us. The priests are coming in for morning prayers. "Forget who you are now and go to the place where the person you always were is waiting. There you will find the right words, and then you can forgive me." Hilal seeks inspiration in the gilded walls, the pillars, the people entering the church at this early hour, the fl ames of the lit candles. She closes her eyes, possibly following my suggestion and imagining some music. "You won't believe this, but I think I can see a girl, a girl who isn't here anymore but who wants to come back . . ." I ask her to listen to what the girl has to say. "The girl forgives you, not because she has become a saint but because she can no longer bear to carry this burden of hatred. Hating is very wearisome. I don't know if something is changing in Heaven or on Earth, or if my soul is being damned or saved, but I feel utterly exhausted, and only now do I understand why. I forgive the man who tried to destroy me when I was ten years old. He knew what he was doing, and I did not. But I felt that it was my fault, and I hated him and myself. I hated everyone who came near me, but now my soul is being set free." This isn't what I was expecting. "Forgive everything and everyone, but forgive me, too," I ask her. "Include me in your forgiveness." "I forgive everything and everyone, including you, even though I don't know what crime you have committed. I forgive you because I love you and because you don't love me. I forgive you because you help me to stay close to my Devil, even though I haven't thought of him for years. I forgive you because you reject me and my powers are wasted, and I forgive you because you don't understand who I am or what I'm doing here. I forgive you and the Devil who touched my body before I even knew what life was about. He touched my body but distorted my soul." She puts her hands together in prayer. I would have liked her forgiveness to have been exclusively for me, but Hilal is redeeming her whole world, and perhaps that is better. Her body starts to tremble. Her eyes fill with tears. "Must it be here, in a church? Let's go outside into the open air. Please!" "No, it has to be in a church. One day we'll do the same thing outside, but today it has to be in a church. Please, forgive me." She closes her eyes and holds her hands aloft. A woman coming into the church sees this gesture and shakes her head disapprovingly. We are in a sacred place; the rituals are different here, and we should respect the traditions. I pretend not to notice, and feel relieved because Hilal, I realize, is talking with the Spirit who dictates prayers and the true laws, and nothing in the world will distract her now. "I free myself from hatred through forgiveness and love. I understand that suffering, when it cannot be avoided, is here to help me on my way to glory. I understand that everything is connected, that all roads meet, and that all rivers flow into the same sea. That is why I am, at this moment, an instrument of forgiveness, forgiveness for crimes that were committed; one crime I know about, the other I do not." Yes, a spirit was talking to her. I knew that spirit and that prayer, which I had learned many years ago in Brazil. It was spoken by a little boy then, not a girl. But Hilal was repeating the words that were in the Cosmos, waiting to be used when necessary. Hilal is speaking softly, but the acoustics in the church are so perfect that everything she says seems to reach every corner. "I forgive the tears I was made to shed, I forgive the pain and the disappointments, I forgive the betrayals and the lies, I forgive the slanders and intrigues, I forgive the hatred and the persecution, I forgive the blows that hurt me, I forgive the wrecked dreams, I forgive the stillborn hopes, I forgive the hostility and jealousy, I forgive the indifference and ill will, I forgive the injustice carried out in the name of justice, I forgive the anger and the cruelty, I forgive the neglect and the contempt, I forgive the world and all its evils." She lowers her arms, opens her eyes, and puts her hands to her face. I go over to embrace her, but she stops me with a gesture. "I haven't finished yet." She closes her eyes again and raises her face heavenward. "I also forgive myself. May the misfortunes of the past no longer weigh on my heart. Instead of pain and resentment, I choose understanding and compassion. Instead of rebellion, I choose the music from my violin. Instead of grief, I choose forgetting. Instead of vengeance, I choose victory. "I will be capable of loving, regardless of whether I am loved in return, Of giving, even when I have nothing, Of working happily, even in the midst of difficulties, Of holding out my hand, even when utterly alone and abandoned, Of drying my tears, even while I weep, Of believing, even when no one believes in me." She opens her eyes, places her hands on my head, and says with an authority that comes from on high, "So it is. So it will be." From the Hardcover edition. Excerpted from Aleph by Paulo Coelho All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
