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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 869.342
EAN: 9780061122415
ISBN: 0061122416
Label: HarperCollins
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 208
Publication Date: May 01, 2006
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: April 25, 2006
Sales Rank: 197
Studio: HarperCollins
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
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.
Amazon.com Review:
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
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
I loved this book. It took months to actually get into the book, i heard about it, and tried reading it, but gave up. But with a free afternoon, i sat down and opened up something deep down inside. Beautiful book, beautiful story. Where someone actually got to write down the words of feeling deep within someone it can take a life time to understand. A book for life..
Rating: -
I love Paolo Coelho's narrative style........
his writing is not just simple but it also has some humor........
this book is such a nice book.....
and GOD BLESS for such a SUPERB Ending!!!!!!!
probably one of the best ENDINGS a BOOK can EVER HAVE!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rating:  -
The main theme--'Everyone has a Personal Legend, when one wants it badly enough, the universe will conspire to help one achieve it.' It's insprational reading. But according to the book, that was not just an idea, but a law. That--is very hard for most readers to agree to.
Rating:  -
There isn't anything in this book that you couldn't get from the output of any number of self-help "gurus". First, the author couldn't even just have a plot being about following one's dream, calling, etc; it had to be one's "Personal Legend" (complete with initial caps). Second, the metaphysics doesn't have anything that one couldn't get from Obi-Wan Kenobi's take on the Force. Third, the characters are one-dimensional. One doesn't get the sense of the shepherd being driven by something, despite ... Read More
Rating: -
I cannot understand why so many people like this book. I guess there's more hunger for tired cliches than I had expected. The main character lacks any character flaws and is so obnoxiously virtuous that he is difficult to relate to. The story is mildly entertaining until the end when it veers into the ridiculous.
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