The Alchemist (novel)

The Alchemist (O Alquimista, 1988) is a novel written by the Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho. It was translated into 88 languages and published in more than 170 countries with more than 85 million copies worldwide.

According to the American newspaper The New York Times, The Alchemist has established Paulo Coelho as the most translated living author in the world. The novel has more than 2 million of reviews on Goodreads.

On the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the publication of the novel, a tribute was held at the Palacio Valdés Theater in Avilés, organized by the Oscar Niemeyer International Cultural Center, with the presence of Paulo Coelho, and, at the same time, He organized a commemorative exhibition about The Alchemist, which traveled to several cities such as Milan, Helsinki, Frankfurt and Bogotá.

Theme

The main theme of the book is based on finding one's destiny. However, several aspects of the book's worldview and main ideas have been widely criticized in academia, such as the statement 'when you want something, the entire universe conspires to make your wish come true.'

The Alchemist tells the adventures of Santiago, a young Andalusian shepherd who travels from his homeland to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure hidden in the pyramids. The protagonist's imagination and courage make him pursue his 'Personal Legend'. Throughout the story, Santiago meets different characters who help him learn to maintain his courage and, above all, listen to the dictates of his heart.

The inspiring message of the book is indirect enough to allow readers to interpret it in any way they choose, with whatever degree and form of spirituality one adheres to. As a Publishers Weekly article opines, "Realizing one's destiny is each person's obligation."

Argument

In Andalusia, a young shepherd walks through the plains contemplating nature. The young Santiago has a repeated dream while he rests with his sheep in an Andalusian pasture, so he decides to go to a gypsy woman to interpret the dream for him. After being dissatisfied with the response he receives, he sits on a bench in the square to read a book and meets an old man who claims to be the king of Salme. After having a conversation with him, in which he makes it clear that he is someone very special, Santiago decides to embark on a trip through North Africa in search of treasure. Along the way he will meet countless people who, like him, seek his own Personal Legend.

When he arrives in a city in North Africa, he decides to find someone to take him to the Pyramids of Egypt. In a bar he meets a man to whom he trusts his money and loses everything, because he turns out to be a thief. The boy, devastated and completely indignant, decides to look for money to return to Spain with his sheep. So he finds a glass salesman he works for, makes his business improve and gets the money to return to Spain and buy sheep, but what he wants is to see his Personal Legend fulfilled, which is why he embarks on a caravan that will take him to Egypt, exactly to an oasis. During his trip he meets an English alchemy student whose dream is to transform metal into gold; With it, he learns the language of the desert, that is, the language of the world, which is made up of signs.

During the journey to Egypt, a clan war breaks out in the desert, so the caravan travels in fear. When he arrives at the oasis he sees that it is a wonderful place, and there he meets a girl named Fátima, with whom he falls madly in love. One day he decides to take a walk through the desert and walk around the oasis. Suddenly, when he decides to rest, he receives a sign in the form of the language of the world: he sees two hawks facing each other and like a mirage, an army. He informs the head of the oasis and then the head prepares himself. The army actually assaults the oasis, to the victory of the locals, who were already warned. The head of the oasis rewards the boy for his feat and gives him 50 gold coins.

Another day, walking through the oasis, he meets an alchemist, who tests him to see if he really knows the language of the world, and after checking it, he tells him that he will help him realize his Personal Legend. The boy had already known her love for Fatima and did not want to leave her; At first he says that he could not continue searching for her treasure because of her love, but he remembers that she had told him that every desert woman must wait for her man until he returns. Santiago leaves for the desert with the alchemist.

They travel through the desert for weeks, thinking about a possible assault by members of the clan wars. When they pass a camp, some men stop them and accuse them of being spies. The alchemist explains to them that they are only traveling to find the Philosopher's Stone, and that the boy is an alchemist who can transform into wind. After giving him his gold, the camp general agrees to give him three days to transform into wind. On the third day the general and his men approach the boy, who was on a mountain. He explains to them that it will take him a while to transform into wind and the general agrees. Now the boy begins to speak with the desert through the language of the world; He explains to him that he does not have enough power to transform it into wind and that he has to talk to him. He also explains the same thing to him and tells him that he must talk to the sun. The sun, ashamed of not being able to transform him, tells him to talk to the Hand that wrote everything, and the boy, reflecting, comes to the conclusion that neither the desert, nor the wind, nor the sun knew what love was., because love is not standing still like the desert, nor traveling the world like the wind, nor seeing everything from afar, like the sun. Love is the force that transforms and improves the Soul of the World. After this the boy understands everything, he immerses himself in the Soul of the World and sees that it is part of the Soul of God, and the latter is his own soul. And that he can, therefore, perform miracles. That's why he turns into wind and the general lets him go with his teacher.

They soon arrive at a monastery, where the alchemist teaches him how metal is transformed into gold, after giving a bar to the monk, another to Santiago, for him, and the last bar he gives back to the monk in in case Santiago lost his money again. The alchemist then tells the boy that from then on he must continue alone and that he only had three hours left.

The boy walks three hours through the desert until he finally reaches the pyramids of Egypt, his dream. Once there he begins to dig in search of his treasure. Suddenly, some assailants approach him and beat him up. The boy, lying on the ground, tells them his dream and everything that had happened. One of the assailants, before leaving, tells him that he had also had a repeated dream, in which he found himself in an abandoned church in Spain and found a treasure, but that he was not foolish enough to cross the desert. a repeated dream. Now the boy had found his treasure.

With the last piece of gold that the alchemist had left him, he returns to Spain, to the place where he had once had that dream, begins to dig and finds the treasure. He then thinks that he should give a tenth to the gypsy as he had promised and then he could return to his beloved, Fatima.

Publication

The Alchemist was published for the first time by a Brazilian publishing house dedicated to self-help books. Although the novel had considerable sales, the publisher returned the rights to the author since, in his opinion, the book would not sell well. ^{[ citation needed ]}

To "recover" from this disappointment, Paulo Coelho traveled from Rio de Janeiro with his wife to the United States where he spent forty days in the Mojave Desert. Upon his return, he decided that he would continue fighting for his dream of being a writer. He got another opportunity at Editora Rocco, which published a new edition of the novel in December 1988.

Prizes

Paulo Coelho has received notable international awards and honors such as the "Crystal Award" awarded by the World Economic Forum, the prestigious distinction "Chevalier de l'Odre National de la Légion d'Honneur" from the French government and the "Gold Medal" from Galicia.

Among the literary awards received, the following should be highlighted:

• Guinness Book of Records by the most translated author of the same book —The alchemist— (2009)

• "The Pergolas" (ALMAC) (Mexico 2006)

• "Platin Book Award" (Austria 2006)

• "DirectGroup International Author Award" (Germany 2005)

• "Goldene Feder Award" (Germany 2005)

• "Nielsen Gold Book Award" (United Kingdom 2004)

• "Golden Bestseller Prize Večernje Novosti (Serbia 2004)

• Guinness Book of Records by signing more translations of the same book (Feria del Libro de Fráncfort, 2003)

• "Best Fiction Corine International Award" (Germany 2002)

• "Bambi 2001 Award" (Germany 2001)

• "XXIII Premio Internazionale Fregene" (Italy 2001)

• "Crystal Mirror Award" (Poland 2000)

• "Super Grinzane Cavour Book Award" (Italy 1996)

• "Flaiano International Award" (Italy 1996)

• "Knight of Arts and Letters" (France 1996)

• "Grand Prix Litteraire Elle" (France 1995)

Inspiration

Paulo Coelho wrote The Alchemist in 1987, according to him, in just two weeks. He explained that he was able to write it at this pace because the story "was already written in his soul." He studied alchemical literature, visited Egypt and lived in Spain for a while before writing the novel.^{[citation required]}

The basic story of The Alchemist appears in other works: in 1935, the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges published a story titled History of the Two Who Dreamed, in the like two men dreaming of another's treasure; another version appears in E. W. Lane's translation One Thousand and One Nights. The story also appears in Rumi's story In Baghdad Dreaming of Cairo, in Cairo Dreaming of Baghdad i>.

Theatre

In Puerto Rico in 2003, the Coribantes Theater Company staged a version of this novel, adapted by Carlos Vega and directed by Rafael Rojas.^{[citation required]}

Cinema

The Weinstein studio, famous for bringing successful novels such as The English Patient to the cinema, will bring the book The Alchemist to the screen, in a high-budget adaptation that will be directed by Laurence Fishburne, said Harvey Weinstein.^{[citation needed]}

The producers want to have Penélope Cruz. The film of The Alchemist will cost more than 60 million dollars (38.5 million euros) and began filming at the end of spring 2013.^{[citation required i>]}

In July 2021 it was announced that pre-production of a film based on the book begins, which will be produced by Will Smith and its cast includes names such as Sebastian de Souza and Jordi Molla.