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. From his home in Spain he journeys to the markets of Tangiers and across the Egyptian desert to a fateful encounter with the alchemist.

The story of the treasures Santiago finds along the way teaches us, as only a few stories have done, about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, learning to read the omens strewn along life's path, and, above all, following our dreams.

Like the one-time bestseller Jonathan Livingston Seagull, The Alchemist presents a simple fable, based on simple truths and places it in a highly unique situation. And though we may sniff a bestselling formula, it is certainly not a new one: even the ancient tribal storytellers knew that this is the most successful method of entertaining an audience while slipping in a lesson or two. Brazilian storyteller Paulo Coehlo introduces Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who one night dreams of a distant treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. And so he's off: leaving Spain to literally follow his dream.

Along the way he meets many spiritual messengers, who come in unassuming forms such as a camel driver and a well-read Englishman. In one of the Englishman's books, Santiago first learns about the alchemists--men who believed that if a metal were heated for many years, it would free itself of all its individual properties, and what was left would be the "Soul of the World." Of course he does eventually meet an alchemist, and the ensuing student-teacher relationship clarifies much of the boy's misguided agenda, while also emboldening him to stay true to his dreams. "My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer," the boy confides to the alchemist one night as they look up at a moonless night.

"Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself," the alchemist replies. "And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity." --Gail Hudson

Customer Rating:
Summary: Absolute favorite book of all time!
Comment: This book is my all-time favorite. I have read it more times than I can count and it never loses its charm. There have been times when I have finished reading the last page only to turn to the beginning and immediately start reading it all over again.

I would recommend this book to people of all ages and backgrounds. This beautifully written simple tale is inspiring and uplifting in a subtle, refreshing way. If you are the type of person who believes in fate, following your heart or that everything happens for a reason, you will absolutely love this book!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: The Alchemist: Chemistry for a New World Order
Comment: A friend of mine at work began telling me about Paulo Coehlo's book, "The Alchemist," and the next thing that I knew, he loaned it to me to read over this past Thanksgiving weekend.

I love adventure/inspiration books like Jonathan Livingston Seagull, so I devoured the book quickly, with tears in my eyes in several places as I journeyed with Santiago in my own mind.

The parable is compelling: Santiago's growth from a boy into a man, understated by the author, complemented the change of scenery from meadow, to town, to oasis, desert and back home again. Much like the theme from The Wizard of Oz, there's no place like home when it comes to excellent stories like "The Alchemist."

Dave Pipitone
Author, "The Rainbow Chronicles: A Bedtime Story for a New Day"
The Rainbow Chronicles: A Bedtime Story for a New Day

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Customer Rating:
Summary: if your gonna read a book, read this one
Comment: its a quick read, but when you reach the end you sense that you have been there and experienced the same things. if you give books as gifts, this should be in the top five.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: C'mon, GROW UP, KIDS!!!
Comment: Every time I see somebody reading one of Coelho's books, usually some dimwitted dreadlocked blonde chick w/ hemp bracelets halfway up to her elbow (degree in `Women's Studies' from some liberal arts college nobody's heard-of, never worked a day in her life, drives daddy's BMW around but feels real guilty about it), it makes me cringe!
In your early 20's, the `everything happens for a reason, your cosmic soulmate is out there somewhere waiting for you' nonsense is seems possible. By your mid-30's: highly dubious. By the time you're over 40 & still believe in this kind of crap, you should be shipped to the same Siberian Death Camp Dostoevsky was & this `life has a purpose' nonsense will fade real quick - believe me!
If everything happens for a reason, tell me: What's the reason for the Holocaust? Rwanda? Somalia? AIDS? Cancer? TB? What reason is large enough to excuse the torture & deaths of million of people?
These feel-good books serve their purpose, keeping halfwits occupied & away from the internet & TV so they can think themselves literate. I find Coehlo not only goofy & pedestrian but downright ignorant! Has this guy ever read Kant? Schopenhauer? Russell? Enough with the knuckleheaded optimism, man, you're setting people up for real disappointment, not to mention early divorce! Only a truly spoiled product of the suburban middle-class could read this novel without laughing (sardonically) out-loud. I find it insulting that homeboy passes this garbage off as `reality.'
The metaphorical value is slight, dull, & vague. Ever hear of Carlos Castaneda, fool? Toss your Coehlo books in the fireplace, along w/ your books on Tarot & Astrology, go get a job (I don't mean canvassing for Earth-First, jackass, I mean a real job!) & start reading real books. There are too many good books out there for you to be wasting your time with this stuff! You're wasting your time daydreaming about finding your soulmate/destiny while Coehlo laughs his way all the way to the (Italian) bank.

rizzob.com

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Customer Rating:
Summary: reaffirm your direction in life
Comment: It is great to read an affirmation like this that reassures you that you are on the right path in your life. It helps to hear this when you have doubt at times.

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