It certainly says something about an author when their book holds the title for most translated in the world. And at 71 languages, Brazilian author Paulo Coelho’s allegorical novel “The Alchemist” presents a philosophy of life and living that is housed within a story of whimsy and fiction, yet real enough to have happened anywhere.
The story concerns a young Andalusian sherpherd named Santiago. Santiago dreams of prophecy and glorious treasures, and when he visits a gypsy in a nearby town, she tells him that a fabulous treasure exists under the pyramids of Egypt. Santiago sets off to reach the pyramids, encountering numerous mythical and mystical characters along the way.
Every chance encounter and every meeting, under moonlit shoals or sandy cities in the East, teaches Santiago — and the reader — about Coelho’s personal philosophy of life. This philosophy, while spanning the entire text, is summarized in the powerful statement that, “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” With the help of alchemists, imams, merchants, soldiers, and spirits, Santiago begins to discover a way of living life that follows his own “personal legend”. With the help of the lost king Melchizedek, Santiago discovers the “soul of the world.”
But, this allegorical hodgepodge is not the true essence of “The Alchemist”. What truly bridges the gap between fablulous fable and thinly veiled self-help novel is Coelho’s writing. Some may say that the “devil is in the details”; this no less true of Coelho’s style.
However, here the devils are actually angels. The ease and smoothness of transition that accompanies the regimented chapters, and sectors of thought that encompass the novel flow as if driven aloft by the emotions, which run through the hearts of Santiago and the near-mythical figure of the Alchemist when he presents himself. Coelho’s writing shifts colors from torpid blue to furious red to maddening yellow without stopping, and the flow of the book is of such a naturally organic rate that a reader would be hard-pressed to not read it all at once.
“The Alchemist” is truly a novel for the ages. It resonates within the mind on a primal level, buidling off of fervent hopes and quiet fears. Paulo Coelho has a reputation for writing books that open the mind, yet “The Alchemist” breaks the mold of regularity; it also opens the heart.
