How do we find the courage to always be true to ourselves—even if we are unsure of who we are?

That is the central question of international bestselling author Paulo Coelho's profound new work, The Witch of Portobello. It is the story of a mysterious woman named Athena, told by the many who knew her well—or hardly at all. Like The Alchemist, The Witch of Portobello is the kind of story that will transform the way readers think about love, passion, joy, and sacrifice.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Magical
Comment: I just finished reading my first Coelho novel, The Witch of Portabello..and am on Amazon to purchase more of his stories. I found the book not only to be compelling and inspirational, but also, mysterious and confusing. The unknown is out there, and we must accept what we can never know, we aren't supposed to understand it all. By far one of my favorite stories...

If you believe, it will happen

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: By trying to be too much it is too little...
Comment: This was the book that I chose for my October book club (Witch..Halloween...get it?) and based on some of the reviews I thought it would be really interesting. However, I had a really hard time getting through it. I think that the author has some neat insights into theology and spirituality and that some of the ideas in the book ARE thought-provoking, but the book seems to try too hard to be deep.

For example when Athena's teacher tells her that "...you said that you'd changed the behavior of the people in the bank where you worked because you'd taught them to dance. That isn't true. You changed everything because, through dance, you changed their reality. You believed in the story of the vertex, which, although I've never heard of it before seems to be an interesting one. You like dancing and you believed in what you were doing. You can't believe in something you don't like, can you?" Well maybe I'm not deep but I know that there are a lot of things that I don't like that I believe in, doing the laundry for example. The bottom line for me was that much of it read like a philosophy book.

The book tried to encompass so much that it just seemed to throw things at you and then move on. There were so many pieces of the narrative that could have been fleshed out into a great story, and so many story lines that went nowhere but would have been interesting to follow. Ultimately, I just didn't really care about Athena or any of the other characters. I never really came to understand their motivations and the story seemed to be secondary to throwing in a lot of spiritual ideas.

My book club agreed that this wasn't a book we would recommend. We also wondered if maybe our age was a factor (40-something women). Maybe younger women would find the book empowering but I was just disappointed. After reading "The Alchemist" and loving it, one member of our book club said we should not judge Paulo Coelho by this book.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Love these books
Comment: This was a very inspiring book for me in very contemplative times in my life. I was able to stay very focused in a time that it was imperative to me. I love all of this particular authors books always read them in trying times.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Fantastic, spiritual, educational
Comment: This is one of the best books I have read. I have learned alot from it and I find it easy to apply those teachings to my life.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Terrible! I'll never waste my time on another book by this author!
Comment: Unless you enjoy reading prose that could very well have been constructed by a student in middle school, stay away!

---