The Alchemist
by Paulo Coelho
Table of Contents
Paulo Coelho
Paulo Coelho was born in 1947, in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. When he was a teenager, his parents, alarmed by his rebelliousness, had him undergo electroconvulsive therapy (shock therapy). Coelho’s dream was always to be a writer, but his parents strongly disapproved, and he gave in to his father’s wish that he study law. By 1970, however, he had had enough of law school and set off on a two-year journey to see the world. He traveled through South America, North Africa, Mexico, and Europe. After returning to Brazil, he launched a successful career as popular songwriter and was a proud member of the hippie counterculture. In 1974, Coelho was briefly imprisoned for writing a hit pop song that was deemed subversive by the Brazilian military dictatorship. After he was released, he was captured by guerilla paramilitaries who held him for a week and tortured him.
In 1982, during a trip to Europe, Coelho met a mysterious mentor named “J,” who told him to make the traditional 500-mile Catholic pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, across western Spain. During the pilgrimage he reconverted to Christianity, an experience he would describe in his first book, The Pilgrimage, published in 1987. The following year, he wrote The Alchemist in only two weeks.
