New translations followed, and soon The Alchemist became a worldwide phenomenon. The book attracted little attention at first, until a French-language translation suddenly leapt onto bestseller lists in France in the early 1990s. The allegorical novel was about an Andalusian shepherd boy who follows a mystical trek in which he learns to speak the "Language of the World" and thus receives his heart's desire.
In 1987, Coelho wrote a new book, The Alchemist, over the course of one two-week spurt of creativity. He quit his other jobs and devoted himself full-time to the craft of writing. The walk and the spiritual awakening he experienced en route inspired him to write The Pilgrimage, an autobiographical account of the trek, in his native Portuguese. Coelho walked more than 500 miles along the Road to Santiago de Compostela, a site of Catholic pilgrimage. PilgrimageĪfter drifting among several professions, Coelho changed his life's course while on a visit to Spain in 1986 at the age of 39. He was jailed three times for his political activism and subjected to torture in prison. He wrote song lyrics for Brazilian musicians protesting the country's military rule. And then love can be very destructive."Ĭoelho eventually got out of institutional care and enrolled in law school, but dropped out to indulge in the "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll" of hippie life in the 1970s. "It happens with love, all the time - when you have this love towards someone else, but you want this person to change, to be like you. Coelho's rebellious adolescence spurred his parents to commit him to a mental asylum three times, starting when he was 17. He determined early on that he wanted to be a writer but was discouraged by his parents, who saw no future in that profession in Brazil. Coelho attended Jesuit schools and was raised by devout Catholic parents. Early LifeĬoelho was born on August 24, 1947, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He’s sold 35 million copies and now writes about one book every two years.
It was his second book, The Alchemist, which made him famous.
When Coelho was 38 years old, he had a spiritual awakening in Spain and wrote about it in his first book, The Pilgrimage.
0 kommentar(er)
