Paulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho is a Brazilian writer and poet. He has published a total of 16 books: novels, annotated anthologies, and collections of short parables. He became famous in Russia after the publication of The Alchemist, which remained in the top ten bestsellers for a long time. His total circulation in all languages exceeds 300 million copies.

He was born into the family of an engineer. His parents wanted the boy to follow in his father’s footsteps, but even in his youth Paulo Coelho decided that he wanted to become a writer. His refusal to follow his parents’ wishes led to him being placed in a psychiatric hospital at the age of 17. He was discharged from the hospital three years later, after making three escape attempts. Coelho later admitted that his parents had decided to place him in an institution because they wanted to protect him and did not know what to do with him. The experiences and feelings he gained during those difficult three years (Coelho was subjected to electroshock treatment) were masterfully reflected in the novel Veronika Decides to Die.

Yielding to his parents’ wishes, Coelho enrolled in law school, but after only a year he dropped out, joined the hippie movement, and traveled through America and Europe. Around the same time, he became a composer and wrote songs for many famous Brazilian performers. Later Paulo joined forces with rock star Raul Seixas... Together they wrote 120 songs (between 1973 and 1982), which revolutionized Brazilian rock music; some of these songs are still hits today. Erica Marmo described that period of his life in her book Song of the Magician: The Musical Career of Paulo Coelho, published in 2007.

A hippie, journalist, rock star, actor, playwright, theater director, and television producer — this whirlwind life ended in 1982 during a trip to Europe. In Dachau and later in Amsterdam, Paulo had a mystical encounter with “J,” his new mentor, who convinced him to follow the route to Santiago de Compostela, the medieval pilgrim’s road between France and Spain.

He made this pilgrimage in 1986. It was there that he returned to Christianity and regained the faith in which he had been raised by Jesuit fathers during his