The Alchemist (novel)
First English edition cover
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| Author | Paulo Coelho |
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| Original title | O Alquimista |
| Country | Brazil |
| Language | Portuguese |
| Genre | Quest, adventure, fantasy |
| Publisher | HarperTorch (English translation) |
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Publication date
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1988 |
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Published in English
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1993 |
| Media type | Print (hardback, paperback and iTunes) |
| Pages | 163 pp (first English edition, hardcover), 208 pages(25th Anniversary Edition) |
| ISBN | (first English edition, hardcover) |
| OCLC | 26857452 |
| 869.3 | |
| Preceded by | The Pilgrimage (1987) |
| Followed by | Brida (1990) |
The Alchemist (Portuguese: O Alquimista) is a novel by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho which was first published in 1988. Originally written in Portuguese, it has been translated into at least 69 languages as of December 2016. An allegorical novel, The Alchemist follows a young Andalusian shepherd in his journey to Egypt, after having a recurring dream of finding treasure there.
The book is an international bestseller. According to AFP, it has sold more than 150 million copies in 70 different languages, becoming one of the best-selling books in history and setting the Guinness World Record for most translated book by a living author.
The Alchemist follows the journey of an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago. Believing a recurring dream to be prophetic, he decides to travel to a Romani fortune-teller in a nearby town to discover its meaning. The woman interprets the dream as a prophecy telling the boy that there is a treasure in the pyramids in Egypt.
Early into his journey, he meets an old king, whose name was Melchizedek, who tells him to sell his sheep to travel to Egypt and introduces the idea of a Personal Legend. Your Personal Legend "is what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone, when they are young, knows what their Personal Legend is." He adds that "when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it." This is the core theme of the book.
Along the way, the boy meets an Englishman who has come in search of an Alchemist and continues his travels with him. They travel through the Sahara desert and during his journey, Santiago meets and falls in love with a beautiful Arabian woman named Fatima, who resides with her clan near an oasis. He asks Fatima to marry him, but she says she will only marry him after he completes his journey and finds his treasures. He is perplexed by this, but later learns that true love will not stop nor plead to sacrifice one's Personal Legend, and if it does, it is not true love.
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Wikipedia