I read that book because of a recommendation from a friend of mine. While reading the pages of the book you will have the desire to know what is next until you find yourself at the final page and that is what happened with me. I ignored my study and finished the book in three days because, for me, it was really interesting. I did not really agree with all the ideas in this book, but it was good in total and had a deep moral.
About The Author
Photo source: Penguin Random House
Name: Paulo Coelho
Nationality: Brazilian
Date of birth: 24 August 1947
An unbelievable fact about him is that he in his seventeens entered a mental institution where he tried to escape many times and eventually get released in his twenties.
Since 1974 he wrote more than 30 books such as:
· The Winner Stands Alone
· Eleven Minutes
· By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
· The Witch of Portobello
· The Gaze of the Gazelle: The Story of a Generation
But his book “The Alchemist” is still the most famous book he wrote though he wrote it in only two weeks.
About The Book
Date of publication: First published in January 1988 under the name” O Alquimista” in Portuguese but then published in English in 1993.
Genre: philosophy, fiction, novel, adventure, fantasy, self-help.
The number of pages: 163 pages in the first English edition.
"The Alchemist" achieved massive sales and it stayed in the New York Times bestsellers for more than 300 weeks.
It has also been translated into more than 80 languages and won many awards:
· NBDB national book awards nominee for translation
· Corine internationaler buchpreis for belletristik
· Premio grinzane Cavour for narrative straniera
Summary (Spoiler Alert!)
While in a destroyed chapel, an Andalusian shepherd kid called Santiago dreams of a treasure. He seeks the interpretation of the reoccurring dream from a Gipsy fortune-teller. The lady takes it as a prophecy, predicting that the kid would find a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids.
After leaving, Santiago encounters an old monarch Melchizedek, or the monarch of Salem, who instructs him to sell his sheep to travel to Egypt and complete his "Personal Legend." A guy who promises to be able to take Santiago to the pyramids actually robs him of the money he had acquired from his flock soon after his arrival in Africa. Santiago must then work for a crystal merchant to obtain enough money to travel to Egypt.
Along the way, the youngster encounters an Englishman looking for an alchemist and continues his journey with his new friend. When they arrive at an oasis, Santiago meets and falls in love with Fatima, an Arabian girl, to whom he proposes marriage. She vows to marry him only when he has finished his journey. Frustrated at first, he gradually realizes that true love will not cease, nor should one surrender one's destiny to it, for doing so robs it of its reality.
The boy then meets a knowledgeable alchemist who teaches him how to recognize his actual nature. Together, they take the danger of traveling into the warring tribes' area, where Santiago is obliged to demonstrate his oneness with the 'Soul of the World' by turning himself into a dust storm before being permitted to continue.
When he arrives near the pyramids and starts digging, he is robbed by criminals who inquire about what he is looking for; he says that a dream has led him to hidden wealth. The thieves laugh, as the leader recalls a dream, he had had about gold hidden behind a tree at a damaged church. Santiago realizes that the treasure he wanted was always where he had his initial dream.
My Opinion
As I said at the beginning of the article I do not agree with some ideas and opinions in that book, but it gave me a realistic perception of one's journey in life. It is not going to be easy or easeful but of course, it is going to be rewarding. So do not be afraid to start, you have a place in this world that awaits you. Do not walk behind the footprints of others. Take initiative, search for opportunities, and believe in yourself.
Written by: Heba Salah
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