My favorite writerPaulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho was born in Brazil and attended a Jesuit school. As a teenager, Coelho wanted to become a writer. Upon telling his mother this, she responded with "My dear, your father is an engineer. He's a logical, reasonable man with a very clear vision of the world. Do you actually know what it means to be a writer?" After researching, which was common for him since he was a policy debater when he was in high school, Coelho concluded that a writer "always wears glasses and never combs his hair" and has a "duty and an obligation never to be understood by his own generation," amongst other things.

At 16, Coelho's introversion and opposition to following a traditional path led to his parents committing him to a mental institution from which he escaped three times before being released at the age of 20. Coelho later remarked that "It wasn't that they wanted to hurt me, but they didn't know what to do... They did not do that to destroy me, they did that to save me“. At his parents' wishes, Coelho enrolled in law school and abandoned his dream of becoming a writer. One year later, he dropped out and lived life as a hippie, traveling through South America, North Africa, Mexico, and Europe and started drugs in the 1960s. Upon his return to Brazil, Coelho worked as a songwriter, composing lyrics for Elis Regina, Rita Lee, and Brazilian icon Raul Seixas. Composing with Raul led to Paulo being associated with magic and occultism, due to the content of some songs.

In 1982 Coelho published his first book, Hell Archives, which failed to make a substantial impact. In 1986 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" After making the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in 1986, Coelho wrote The Pilgrimage. The following year, Coelho wrote The Alchemist and published it through a small Brazilian publishing house who made an initial print run of 900 copies and decided not to reprint. He subsequently found a bigger publishing house, and with the publication of his next book Brida, The Alchemist became a Brazilian bestseller. The Alchemist has gone on to sell more than 65 million copies, becoming one of the best-selling books in history, and has been translated into 80 different languages, winning the Guinness World Record for most translated book by a living author.

Diary of a magician En 1987, one year after crossing the Way of Santiago, Paulo writes his first book, The pilgrim of Compost Her (with the original title Or Diário of um Magician, ' diary of a magician '). The book narrates his experiences during the peregrination and discovers that the extraordinary thing is in the way of the common persons. It publishes in a small Brazilian publishing house, and though it does not have repercussion between the critique, harvests a relative best-seller.

The alchemist in 1988 writes the second book very different from the first one: The alchemist. It is a question of a symbolic book, a metaphor of the life, in that it reflects his studies of alchemy for eleven years. In his first edition only it manages to sell 900 copies and the publishing house decides not to follow with her publicación.7 8 Looks then for a major publishing house that is interested for his work, the publisher Rocco. In 1990 is published Bridle, which he speaks about the gift that each of us takes inside. The publication of this book, that this time already had the attention of the press, leads to The Alchemist and the Diary of a Magician to the top of the lists of best sellers.

Bridle (1990), it is a book that treats the history of a 21-year-old Irish young woman of age who knows a magician, asks whom to turn into a witch. But to be able to manage to possess the magic that she always has wished, Bridle will have to realize that the key is simple: the love. The book shows us how the greatness of the love can overcome all the obstacles and stop to go to the twin soul.

The valkírias Written in 1992, it treats of a man that it goes in search of his angel to see it directly and to speak with him. In order to achieve it he travels to the desert of the Mojave, accompanied of his wife, and in his way they must think the valkirias (divinities of the Scandinavian mythology, daughters of the god Odín, that in the combats they were designating the heroes who had to die, which later they were serving in the Valhalla, the mansion of the deceased heroes in combat, a species of paradise for these, which local god is Wotan), those who will say to him what it has to do to achieve his assignment. In his trip it is realizing what things it must change in his life, not to destroy everything what it has obtained, whereas his wife is discovering the world in which his pair lives.

On the banks of the river Stone I sat down and wept. (1994) The history centres on Prop, an independent young woman, who feels frustrated by the routine life of the university and decides to look for another meaning to his life. Pilar's life gives one I overturn when he thinks a friend of his infancy, that now he is a spiritual teacher and of that rumored that realizes miracles and treatments. The book narrates the trip of both across the French Pyrenees.

In 1996, Objective Publishing house acquires the rights of The fifth mountain, his following publication, with an anticipation of 1.000.000 of dollars, never codes paid a Brazilian author. In the same year, Philippe Douste-Blazy, the French secretary of Culture names Paulo ' Gentleman of the Arts and the Letters ' saying, ' you have turned into the alchemist for million readers. Your books do well because they stimulate our aptitude to dream, our desire to search. ' Also in 1996, Paulo is nominated special counselor in the program of the UNESCO ' spiritual Convergences and intercultural dialogs. ' The same year, The Alchemist is published in Germany (Diogenes). His version in hard lid beats the record in the year 2002 with more than 306 weeks of permanency in the lists of more sold of Der Spiegel.

In 1998, Paulo publishes his notable Manual work of the warrior of the light, a collection of philosophical thoughts that help us to discover the warrior of the light who exists in each of us. The title transforms in a work of reference to million readers. The first publication is in Italy (Bompiani), with a spectacular best-seller.

Veronika decides to die, with a more narrative style, it publishes in 1998 and rapidly it receives excellent critiques. In September, it had received more than 1.200 e-mails and letters that were counting similar experiences. In October, some of the topics treated in the book - depression, syndrome of panic, suicide - they were discussed in a seminar that had national repercussion. " On January 22 of the following year, the senator Eduardo Suplicy read extracts of my book in a plenary session and managed to approve a law that was walking turning for the Congress of Brazil from it was doing ten years: the one that prohibits the hospitable arbitrary internments ". In January, 2000, Umberto Eco comments for Focus: " I like most recent Coelho's novel. Really it has affected me deeply ".

The Zahir.

When the absence turns into obsession. A recognized writer of world reputation discovers one day that his wife, correspondent of war, has eliminated without leaving track. It has been kidnapped, victim of an attempt or simply she was feeling unsatisfied with his marriage? When his absence turns into an obsession, the narrator proposes to find the answers to all the questions that have appeared him, and initiates the way towards an unknown destination.

Set in the attractive environment of the festival of Cannes, The victor is alone goes far beyond of the luxury and the glamour, and it us leads to a deep reflection brings over of the force of the own dreams and of which it is the set of values to which we measure up. For 24 hours we follow the steps of Igor, Russian businessman magnate of the communications, destroyed by a painful sentimental break, and know his delirious plan to attract the attention of his ex-wife. In his way there will cross Gabriela, a young woman and ambitious actress; Jasmine, model of Rwanda exiled in Europe; Javits, an influential and corrupt producer; and Hamid, stylist that it began of zero and it is today in the top of his glory.

The theatre in the Education - 1974

Krig-há's Manifest - 1974

The pilgrim of Compost Her - 1987

The alchemist - 1988

Bridle - 1990

The supreme gift (of Henry Drummond) - 1991

Valquirias - 1992

Maktub - 1994

On the banks of The river Stone I sat down and wept - 1994.

The fifth mountain - 1996

Love letters of the Prophet (of Khalil Gibran) - 1997

The Manual of the Warrior of the Light - 1997

Verónika decides to die – 1998

The demon and miss Prym - 2000

Eleven minutes - 2003

The Zahir - 2005

The witch of Portobello - 2007

Like the river that flows - 2008

The victor is alone - 2008

The way of the arch - 2009

Histories for parents, children and grandsons - 2009

Aleph - 2011

The manuscript found in Accra - 2012