The Alchemist

The Alchemist –Paulo Coelho 167 pgs.

Coelho’s classic tale ranks as one of the best travel books of all time. As with any other great travel story the voyage is not simply a physical one but a personal and spiritual one as well. The book follows the wanderings of the young Spaniard Santiago. Struck by the desire to see the world at a young age, Santiago leaves his family to take up the life roaming life of a shepherd. After exploring the rolling hills and pastures of southern Spain for two years a series of strange events lead Santiago to sell his flock and set out in quest of his own personal legend. The resulting journey is a classic description of one persons attempt to find the meaning of his life.

Coelho’s writing is heavily influenced by his own personal understanding of religion and spirituality. Often such authors find a narrower audience for their work because of this, but this is not the case with Coelho. His words take on a sense of universalism that seems to transcend any one set of beliefs. This is due to the mystical quality that permeates his writings and thoughts, the belief that the world and everything in it and outside of it share connections that at first glance are hard to discern.

His words are also very personal in nature and one often has the impression that Coelho’s characters share something with oneself. To be able to write about something that everyone already knows but to present it in a new form is the key to being a great writer and this is what Coelho does so well. He taps into some general truths or human universals that everyone can relate to, something that one has felt but not known how to organize in any systematic fashion. In this way his stories are not only about the characters contained on the pages, but also about the reader who is holding the book.
It is not the most profound book you will ever read but it will make you take a step back and view your life a bit differently. Sometimes the most important things are the simplest ones.