Paulo Coelho

About The Author: Paul0 Coelho

Paulo Coelho, a Brazilian author, was born on August 24, 1947, in Rio de Janeiro. He is renowned for using a wealth of symbolism to illustrate the frequently mystical journeys that his characters undergo.

Rio de Janeiro is where Coelho was reared. He disobeyed the rules of his upbringing as a Roman Catholic, and as a result, his parents temporarily put him to a mental institution. In 1970, Coelho left his legal studies to travel around South America, Mexico, North Africa, and Europe. He went back to his own country in 1972 and started collaborating with renowned Brazilian singer-songwriter Raul Seixas on pop and rock song lyrics. Coelho served a brief sentence in jail in 1974 for allegedly engaging in subversive actions against the Brazilian government.

He worked for Polygram and CBS Records upon his release until 1980, when he started new journeys around Europe and Africa. He traveled 500 miles (800 km) of routes along the Santiago de Compostela route, which pilgrims from France to Spain initially utilized in the Middle Ages. This lengthy voyage, influenced by a resurgence of interest in Catholicism, served as the inspiration for his debut book, O diário de um mago (1987), which was translated into English in 1992 and reprinted in 1995 as The Pilgrimage.

O alquimista (The Alchemist), a mystical narrative of an Andalusian shepherd boy's trek across North Africa in pursuit of wealth, was published by Coelho in 1988. The book was reprinted to great popularity in Brazil and—in translation—abroad after being dismissed by its initial publisher. In his autobiography As Valkrias (1992; The Valkyries), he describes a desire to communicate with angels that he and his first wife undertook while they were young and deeply immersed in the countercultural scene of the 1970s. With Na margem do rio Piedra eu sentei e chorei (1994; By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept), which is about a young Spanish woman's spiritual reawakening, he once more went to fiction.

Coelho continues to focus both his fiction and nonfiction works on issues of faith and spirituality. He had previously chronicled the progression of his return to the Catholic faith in The Pilgrimage and The Valkyries. The biblical prophet Elijah's narrative is retold in O monte cinco (1996; The Fifth Mountain), while a collection of spiritual advice from well-known religious leaders is presented in Manual do guerreiro da luz (1997; Manual of the Warrior of Light) within a fictitious setting. Despite the fact that Coelho's books continued to be popular in Brazil and abroad, reviewers frequently criticized them for being unduly didactic and moralizing.

Veronika Decides to Die (1998; Coelho's later novel), which explores the alleged mental instability of his youth, The Devil and Miss Prym (2000; Coelho's later novel), which examines the fundamental nature of humanity, and Eleven Minutes (2003; Coelho's later novel), which examines the lines between love and sex through the narrative of a prostitute. In the 2006 film A bruxa de Portobello (The Witch of Portobello), interviews with those who knew the female religious leader are used to convey her narrative. The 2008 thriller O vencedor está só (The Winner Stands Alone) takes place during the Cannes Film Festival. In O Aleph (2010; Aleph), Coelho purportedly recounted his 2006 trip on the Trans-Siberian Railroad, but he embellished it with a purported encounter with a reincarnated lover from a previous life. In Manuscrito Encontrado em Accra (2012), a Greek wise man describes his experiences in Jerusalem just before the Crusaders invaded the city. A prominent journalist's extramarital affair is shown in Adultério (2014; Adultery), while Coehlo's travels in the 1970s served as the inspiration for Hippie (2018; 2018).

Coelho also published Life: Selected Quotations (2007), a similar compilation of English-translated extracts, and Frases (1996), a collection of condensed passages from his body of work. Maktub ("It Is Written"), a collection of Coelho's weekly columns from the newspaper O Globo, was published in 1997. Coelho increased the number of people who read his novels by blogging, expanding on the concepts he raised in them, and making his works freely downloadable. In order to help children and the elderly, he established the Paulo Coelho Institute in 1996.