The Alchemist

A Fable About Following Your Dream

Paperback, 176 pages

English language

Published May 10, 1995 by HarperSanFrancisco.

ISBN:
9780062502186
OCLC Number:
34107112

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5 stars (3 reviews)

"My Heart Is Afraid that it will have to suffer," the boy told the alchemist one night as they looked up at the moonless sky."Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams."Every few decades a book is published that changes the lives of its readers forever. The Alchemist is such a book. With over a million and a half copies sold around the world, The Alchemist has already established itself as a modern classic, universally admired. Paulo Coelho's charming fable, now available in English for the first time, will enchant and inspire an even wider audience of readers for generations to come.The Alchemist is the magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure as extravagant as any ever found. …

29 editions

Read this at just the right time

5 stars

I have read many critical reviews of this book and I can absolutely see the reasons why so many people dislike the book. For me, however, this book came at just the right time of my life, and it had a huge impact on me.

You see, the book is about following your dream. In my case, I felt stuck in a life that didn't suit me at all, unable to move. This book comes with a certain naivety that is freeing. The kind that says, it doesn't matter, just go for it. Yes that sounds like a recipe for disaster for some people, especially since some events in the books might seem to have a rather dubious meaning. But for me it was a lifesaver. And most of the more rational books that I read as well did no remotely have the same effect. The book might suggest to …

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rated it

5 stars

Subjects

  • Alchemists -- Fiction
  • Shepherds -- Spain -- Andalusia -- Fiction
  • Andalusia (Spain) -- Fiction