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Paulo Coelho (1947–2024)

Author of The Alchemist

215+ Works 88,676 Members 2,011 Reviews 237 Favorited

About the Author

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 show more 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) show less

Series

Works by Paulo Coelho

The Alchemist (1988) 38,986 copies
Veronika Decides to Die (1998) 7,086 copies
Eleven Minutes (2003) 5,307 copies
The Zahir (2005) 4,156 copies
The Witch of Portobello (2006) 3,726 copies
The Devil and Miss Prym (2000) 3,705 copies
Brida (1990) 2,556 copies
The Fifth Mountain (1996) 2,511 copies
Warrior of the Light (1997) 2,288 copies
The Valkyries (1992) 1,776 copies
The Winner Stands Alone (2008) 1,433 copies
Aleph (2010) 1,124 copies
Adultery (2014) 885 copies
Manuscript Found in Accra (2013) 820 copies
The Spy: A novel (2013) 788 copies
Maktub (1901) 422 copies
Hippie (2018) 398 copies
The Archer (2008) 325 copies
Life: Selected Quotations (2007) 272 copies
The Supreme Gift (1994) 96 copies
AMOR (Spanish Edition) (2010) 56 copies
The Essential Paulo Coelho (2018) 49 copies
And on the Seventh Day (2001) 47 copies
Unterwegs. Der Wanderer. (2004) 45 copies
O Diario De Um Mago (2006) 24 copies
The Paulo Coelho Collection (1997) 12 copies
Enigma: 2008 calendar (2007) 7 copies
Casus (2016) 7 copies
Moments 2012: Diary (2011) 6 copies
Dracula *e (1997) 6 copies
Freedom: Day Planner 2018 (2017) 4 copies
O Mosteiro Pode Acabar (1999) 4 copies
Biografia d'un narrador (2003) 4 copies
Eleven Minutes 3 copies
Mãe 3 copies
Rukopis otkriven u Akri (2014) 3 copies
ZAHIRI 3 copies
Besinci Dag (2020) 2 copies
Preljuba (2014) 2 copies
Le Don suprême (2023) 2 copies
The Complete Collection (2010) 2 copies
Amicizia. Agenda 2017 (2016) 2 copies
Duvvumin maktub (2004) 2 copies
Paulo Coelho (2015) 2 copies
O Arqueiro (2023) 2 copies
Goncalo Byrne, 1941-... (2011) 2 copies
Secrets: Day Planner 2020 (2019) 2 copies
VIDA (SELECCION DE CITAS) (2008) 2 copies
Keemiyagar 1 copy
Lukostřelec (2023) 1 copy
MALI I PESTE 1 copy
BRIDA 1 copy
Strelac 1 copy
The Classic Collection (2018) 1 copy
Nha gia kim 1 copy
MATURIA 1 copy
Szerelem (2009) 1 copy
Simyaci Ciltli (2007) 1 copy
مکتوب 1 copy
Aldatmak - Mini Kitap (2016) 1 copy
Courage: 2016 Calendar (2015) 1 copy
Hipík (2018) 1 copy
Força 2023 1 copy

Associated Works

Siddhartha (1945) — Introduction, some editions — 27,713 copies
Paulo Coelho: Confessions of a Pilgrim (1999) — Narrator — 175 copies
Veronika Decides To Die [2009 film] (2009) — Original book — 10 copies
Beyond Our Differences [2008 film] (2008) — Interviewee — 5 copies

Tagged

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Common Knowledge

Legal name
de Souza, Paulo Coelho
Birthdate
1947-08-24
Date of death
2024-03-25
Gender
male
Nationality
Brazil
Country (for map)
Brazil
Birthplace
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Places of residence
Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
Geneva, Switzerland
Education
Colégio Santo Inácio-Rede Jesuíta de Educação
Occupations
writer
author
novelist
theater director
actor
lyricist (show all 7)
journalist
Relationships
Oiticica, Christina (wife)
Organizations
United Nations (Messenger of Peace)
European Union (Ambassador for Intercultural Dialogue)
Shimon Peres Institute for Peace
UNESCO (special counsellor for “Intercultural Dialogues and Spiritual Convergences”)
Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship
Brazilian Academy of Letters
Awards and honors
Legion d'Honneur
Knight of Arts and Letters ( [1996])
Flaiano (1996)
Comendador de Ordem do Rio Branco ( [1998])
Crystal Award (World Economic Forum ∙ 1999)
Crystal Mirror Award ( [2000]) (show all 18)
Premio Internazionale Fregene ( [2001])
Planetary Arts Award (Club of Budapest ∙ 2002)
Order of St. Sophia (contribution to revival of science and culture ∙ [2004])
Order of Honour (Ukraine ∙ 2004)
Budapest Prize ( [2005])
Goldene Feder Award ( [2005])
International Author Award (DirectGroup ∙ [2005])
Wilbur Award (Religion Communicators Council ∙ [2006])
Cruz do Mérito do Empreendedor Juscelino Kubitschek ( [2006])
I Premio Álava en el Corazón ( [2006])
Las Pergolas Prize (Association of Mexican Booksellers ∙ [2006])
Distinction of Honour (City of Odense - Hans Christian Andersen Award ∙ [2007])
Agent
Sant Jordi Asociados, Barcelona
Short biography
The Brazilian author PAULO COELHO was born in 1947 in the city of Rio de Janeirom, and died in 2024 at the age of 77. Before dedicating his life completely to literature, he worked as theatre director and actor, lyricist and journalist.

Coelho wrote song lyrics for many famous performers in Brazilian music, such as Elis Regina and Rita Lee. Yet his most well known work has been done with Raul Seixas. Together they wrote such successes as Eu nasci há dez mil anos atrás (I was born ten thousand years ago), Gita and Al Capone, amongst other 60 songs.

His fascination with the spiritual quest dates back to his hippie days, when he travelled the world learning about secret societies, oriental religions, etc.

In 1982 Coelho published his first book, Hell Archives, which failed to make any kind of impact. In 1985 he contributed to the Practical Manual of Vampirism, although he later tried to take it off the shelves, since he considered it “of bad quality”. In 1986, PAULO COELHO did the pilgrimage to Saint James of Compostella, an experience later to be documented in his book The Pilgrimage.

In the following year, COELHO published The Alchemist. Slow initial sales convinced his first publisher to drop the novel, but it went on to become one of the best selling Brazilian books of all time.

Other titles include Brida (1990), The Valkyries (1992), By the river Piedra I sat Down and Wept (1994), the collection of his best columns published in the Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo entitle Maktub (1994), the compilation of texts Phrases (1995), The Fifth Mountain (1996), Manual of a Warrior of Light (1997), Veronika decides to die (1998), The Devil and Miss Prym (2000), the compilation of traditional tales in Stories for parents, children and grandchildren (2001), Eleven Minutes (2003), The Zahir (2005), The Witch of Portobello (2006) and a compilation of texts gathered under the title Like a Flowing River (2006) published in a few countries for the moment.

He also adapted The Gift (Henry Drummond) and Love letters of a prophet (Kalil Gibran).

To date, Coelho has sold a total of 100 million copies and, according to the magazine Publishing Trends; he was the most sold author in the world in 2003 with his book Eleven Minutes – even though at the time it hadn't been released in the United States, Japan or 10 other countries!

Also according to Publishing Trends, The Alchemist was to be found in the 6th place of world sales in 2003. Eleven Minutes topped all lists in the world, except for England, where it was in second place. The Zahir, published in 2005, was in third place of bestsellers according to Publishing Trends, after Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons.

The Alchemist was one of the most important literary phenomena of the 20th century. It reaches the first place in bestselling lists in 18 countries, and so far has sold 30 million copies.

The book has been praised by different personalities ranging from the Nobel Prize Kenzaburo Oe to the singer Madonna, who considers it one of her favourite books. It has equally inspired many projects – such as a musical in Japan, theatre plays in France, Belgium, USA, Turkey, Italy, Switzerland. It is also the theme of two symphonies (Italy and USA) and had its text illustrated by the famous French artist Moebius (author of the sceneries for he Fifth Element and Alien).

His work has been translated in 67 languages and edited in more than 150 countries.

http://www.paulocoelho.com

Members

Discussions

Juli 2013 : "Der Alchimist" von Paulo Coelho in Online-Lesekreis (August 2013)
Paulo Coelho in 1001 Books to read before you die (September 2008)

Reviews

Did not read consistently so maybe would have liked it more if so. Overall not too exciting and not relatable.
 
Flagged
Zach-Rigo | 1,029 other reviews | Mar 3, 2024 |
A well writ book, a good story, if it just stopped there and wasn’t taken as some sort of magical universal metaphor by his uber-fans.
 
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yates9 | 1,029 other reviews | Feb 28, 2024 |
Anyone looking for life-enhancing wisdom should not have high expectations of The Alchemist but I liked it. My daughter sent it to me and I would have rated it 4 stars except for a few small discontents. What I liked most was the style. I love a good fable and I love the kind of style that comes with a fable. Coelho's style has a timeless, universal quality that hints at wisdom and profound archetypal knowledge in a sentient world where Jung's synchronicity prevails and order can be uncovered.

My discontents belong first to the words 'Personal Legend' which are probably a translation issue. Perhaps this points to the paucity of the English language to express dimensions of alignment with primal forces? The second, and, as I write this I realise it is related to the first, a moment in the book which I had to re-read several times because suddenly the narrative seemed to change track and we saw the world through the eyes of the Englishman.

While the idea that alchemy was a spiritual quest for the gold of the self has been the subject of much speculation, The Alchemist has a foot in both camps. I liked the circularity at the end but ultimately I hoped for something more profound. That said, it was such a wonderful and enchanting journey that I'll seek out some more Paulo Coelho.
… (more)
 
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simonpockley | 1,029 other reviews | Feb 25, 2024 |
 
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AnkaraLibrary | 69 other reviews | Feb 23, 2024 |

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Statistics

Works
215
Also by
7
Members
88,676
Popularity
#116
Rating
½ 3.6
Reviews
2,011
ISBNs
2,752
Languages
59
Favorited
237

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