Answer: I was in Lebanon in 1996, right after the end of the civil war. And I intend to go to Beirut again in August or September.

i have been a lost soul, though i m only 19… but after reading Paulo coelho..i dont say i have found myself or my way back to me.. but yes, i have learned to be lost n lost forever, in the darkness i choose.. in the jungle of my choice.. in the dwellings of my fancies…. lik million others i decided to be a writer n a poet.

i don’t have the slightest of clue that paulo coelho will be reading it or not.. but like everyone alive, i have different ways waiting for me to come n walk on them n live them… i know that one of the ways will surely take me to him….. someday… someday…

alchemist is a universal phenomenon… n is liked by everyone…n even i do
but my personal fav. is “the zahir”… n my intuition says.. though its cover says.. ‘fiction’… this is the best non-fiction one can find or write… its all so true… so true…

an imagining n dreaming heart…. rohit. india

I dont Know if this message is going to be read, but the only thing I know for sure, is that although i haven’t read all your books Mr. Coelho, you have made a truly change inside of me. Not just a stereotypical spiritual one, not just that. You have reached a level of influence in my thoughs that had clearly open mi way of think. Since I read the Alchemyst I discover a whole new world of wonders in the books. I have decided to be a writer, I admire you among some other great icons of the legacy of the wisdom. For example, i admire Nikola Tesla, Giordano Bruno and many other geniuses. I think that within your books you share (or try to) the wisdom you have reached in a certain level. I hope that some day, you visit my country. A little centroamerican country, Panama. It will be great to have you here were you have, a great number of readers, must of them young readers like me. Now I have to found my path, still dont know if my path will be of good or evil, but I know that someday if magic is in my way, it will show like you once told me in a reply. Thank You very much for all the great job you have done,

An Aprentice of RAM.

Efrain Alvarez

Panama, Panama.

i am revising for exams at the moment and fancied a little inspiration which i found in a chapter from your new novel.I also enjoyed the Q & A session. You are very good at articulating your experiences and indirectly those of others. I hope that i will beable to carry the same compassion into my job and indeed relationships with friends and loved ones.

When one is tired or low it is more difficult to really listen to others and how they feel. It is difficult even for a person to listen and be in touch with his/herself when they feel like that.

But you remind me to keep trying

i look forward to reading the book when it comes out.

regards

nasreen

I have just read through these comments written by people whose lives you’ve touched through your work. Although I did not intend to do this, I feel as though I too want to share how you have touched my soul with your words. Logically, you and I don’t have much in common… I am 19 years old, a woman, am Russian/American, and an atheist…. So you see, when comparing gender, age and nationality/culture, and religion, we are not alike. However, your books transcend all of that and I have wept at some point while reading each of them because I could relate to your characters, and you as the author, on such a profound level. What you have is an incredible gift… How you connect people of all cultures and walks of life together through your writing is so inspiring. Just looking at this blog and where your fans are from is proof enough. Especially in a world where there are many conflicts and so much religious strife, you write about people on such a deeply human level that gender, age, social class, religion all vanish and what we have left is our human core, something we all share. I read in your interview that you are a “typical example of a person that is never satisfied”, I am also one of those people… However, I hope that you are satisfied with what you have accomplished in your lifetime, because it is truly great. You have touched so many people all over the world and have brought them closer together. I can understand exactly what the people who posted here mean when they write about how much you have affected their lives, because you have affected mine in much the same way. Paulo, you are truly an inspiration, and I wish you all the happiness in the world because you have given to the world so much. Thank you.

“What’s your dream?” that’s the most annoying question i’ve been asked.. because i had soooo many dreams.. nothing specific.. and when asked that question usually the expected answer is very specific…an actor, doctor, writer ..etc..
And i didn’t have such an answer.. i had that dream of what my mother wanted me to be, and that of my grandmother, and i wanted to be what my sister was(she seemed to be on the right track), and there was the dream of what the society wanted.. and last and many times least was what i really wanted.. so in all this chaos of dreams i lost mine..
whenever i was asked ” what’s your dream in life?” i would just want the subject to be changed.. i hated that question..
then i came to read your books.. and I realized.. wow.. this world of dreams is really big.. with a lot of things that one can do and achieve..
your books are really inspiring.. they widened my horizon a lot.. and now I can see my own dream clear as never before ..and they helped me know myself better .. I’m happy just to be myself…Thank you!!

yours in friendship

Sylvia
Egypt

I have newer done this, newer had the longing to, but after reading your stories I feel I must tell you what I have felt.

I read the alchemist and I slept with it in my arms because it was such a beautiful tale. I read Veronica decides to die, and I wept because in the characters there where like me, and I felt alive, free and the longing to be “crazy”.

You have touched my heart Paulo, in a way no one has before. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you.

Love

Jón Skúli
Reykjavík
Iceland

I had not heard of The Alchemist in my earlier days. A few years back, all of a sudden coincidences, magic, and divine signs sprang into my life and I just wondered and felt grateful. After that, a friend gave me The Alchemist to read and word by word, it echoed all my experiences of those times. When you have gone through some experiences and after that you have a book open right in front of you echoing the sameness, the reading is simply exhilarating. And The Alchemist remains on top of my fave list.

Seema

I read Maktub, The Alchemist, The 5th Mountain, 11 minutes, Zahir, and now a few pages of your latest work the Witch of Portobuelo in different languages, and each time you ‘re touching something personal in me, you’re speaking of something universal.So I thank you for what you’re doing, it give hope to a lot of people including me.Gracias.

Concerning this new piece of work, I think that you’re revealing the true nature of women that is to say I can identifie as a man at that character Athena.What I want to say simply it’s that men will call certain women Witches because they’re revealing the dark side of us men which we cannot faceand get afraid.But they ‘re incounsciousally doing this to please us, they’re the part of man we have too many times rejected.In the end I can say the same thing about the women who reject the part of manhood they ‘ve got calling them that time assholes.
Well, we are nothing or very uncomplete without our missing part.

I was thinking reading the interview if you ever get the chance of meeting another writer name Paul Auster and born as you in 1947.
I think he’s dealing with the same song as you, coincidence in life.
And as I was thinking about it, it came to me that other artists in various domain cinema, singing … are dealing with the same song David Lynch, David Bowie.
So I think it would be great that Paul meet David and I wish I could meet Paul David.
Thanks for reading me.
Best Wishes

Last year I started with your ‘Alchaemist’. And can’t stop reading your books. I have read almost all, except a few.

I want to tellone fascinating experience. I was reading “flow like a river” I was reading one chapter about translators. Then one of my friends called me on phone. I kept a bookmark & answered the call. She told me about the movie ‘The tower of Babel’, which she had just watched & explained to me in detail, the storey of ‘tower of babel’. Being a Hindu woman, I hardly know anything about such stories

I went to work after that, and resumed reading ‘that’ chapter in the night. The first sentence I read was about ‘Tower of Babel.’ Imagine my astonishment!

I think, I was destined to know about ‘tower of babel’ at that very moment.

Thanks a lot for your books. They have provided such a beautifull & devine solace to one and all.

I have started seeing things in a new perspective since I read Alchaemist the first time. Since then, whenever I feel low, I turn to Alchaemist & find peace again.

Thank you.

I have read all your books, starting with the Alchemist which mesmerized me. All of the searching and reasoning from your book sounded so true inside of me! (And I have been to Santiago de Compostella and felt the energy there!)

I am a restless soul and a Bulgarian who has lived in Switzerland, England, the US, and now in Sweden. Sometimes I feel very lost but as you said it, I too believe in guiding signs and in reading them correctly! I am looking forward to read the first chapter of your new book tomorrow!

If you ever come to Stockholm, I would love to meet you!

Love,
Katya

Love
Paulo [/quote]

Dear Zahira,
If you think alittle hard you shall be able to find the beautiful aspects of other titels also.
The most used part of paulo’s books 9During my discussions)is the reference from Alchemist,which says I can always be a shepherd again.
This one thinking gives you immense strength to take new challanges
Zahira don’t forget the pilgrimage’s event of climbing up the fall against water,which have a strength to drive away your fears.
sandeep dahiya[/quote]

Dear Paulo,
Dear Sandeep Dahiya,

Thank you for your warm words and for advices. It is good to feel that just a few phrases about my soul (and Paulo’s beautiful stories in it) could be not only mine, but also yours.

I am the shepherd. Beginner, but it doesn’t matter.
I climbing up the fall.
I am on my way to Santiago de Compostela. I can not see the cathedral, yet. Maybe because of my inexperience. But one day it will appear on my horizon. I hope. I believe.

Thank you - once more.
I am not alone.

Zahira R.

I am not wait for the next book.

I want to share with you my happiness - a pride of my own life. It is not perfect. It is not as good as I want it to be. But I believe one day it will become. And I always do my best to create it in the most right way.

It is hard to be a human. Every day I stumble. Sometimes it means only a kind of hesitation. But sometimes I fall. A great blessing is ability of not surrendering. And that is a role of your books in my life.

When I feel that my faith is going week - I take “The Fifth Mountain”.
When I feel that it is harder and harder to recognize what is right and what is evil - I read “The Devil and Miss Prym”.
When I feel I lost myself in a mixture of feelings - I think about Pilar - her strength and determination.
And finally when I start to have doubts about my life - I ask my beloved Veronica - what to do. She has always an answer for me.

I can not wait to have “The Witch of Portobello” in my hands. I strongly believe it will also have an influence on my life. I just wonder on which part of it…?

Thank You, Paulo. With all my heart.

Zahira R.[/quote]

dear Zahira,

Love
Paulo [/quote]

Dear Zahira,
If you think alittle hard you shall be able to find the beautiful aspects of other titels also.
The most used part of paulo’s books 9During my discussions)is the reference from Alchemist,which says I can always be a shepherd again.
This one thinking gives you immense strength to take new challanges
Zahira don’t forget the pilgrimage’s event of climbing up the fall against water,which have a strength to drive away your fears.
sandeep dahiya

I want to share with you my happiness - a pride of my own life. It is not perfect. It is not as good as I want it to be. But I believe one day it will become. And I always do my best to create it in the most right way.

It is hard to be a human. Every day I stumble. Sometimes it means only a kind of hesitation. But sometimes I fall. A great blessing is ability of not surrendering. And that is a role of your books in my life.

When I feel that my faith is going week - I take “The Fifth Mountain”.
When I feel that it is harder and harder to recognize what is right and what is evil - I read “The Devil and Miss Prym”.
When I feel I lost myself in a mixture of feelings - I think about Pilar - her strength and determination.
And finally when I start to have doubts about my life - I ask my beloved Veronica - what to do. She has always an answer for me.

I can not wait to have “The Witch of Portobello” in my hands. I strongly believe it will also have an influence on my life. I just wonder on which part of it…?

Thank You, Paulo. With all my heart.

Zahira R.[/quote]

dear Zahira,

Love
Paulo

I want to share with you my happiness - a pride of my own life. It is not perfect. It is not as good as I want it to be. But I believe one day it will become. And I always do my best to create it in the most right way.

It is hard to be a human. Every day I stumble. Sometimes it means only a kind of hesitation. But sometimes I fall. A great blessing is ability of not surrendering. And that is a role of your books in my life.

When I feel that my faith is going week - I take “The Fifth Mountain”.
When I feel that it is harder and harder to recognize what is right and what is evil - I read “The Devil and Miss Prym”.
When I feel I lost myself in a mixture of feelings - I think about Pilar - her strength and determination.
And finally when I start to have doubts about my life - I ask my beloved Veronica - what to do. She has always an answer for me.

I can not wait to have “The Witch of Portobello” in my hands. I strongly believe it will also have an influence on my life. I just wonder on which part of it…?

Thank You, Paulo. With all my heart.

Zahira R.

talking about coindidences, today, while surfing the net I fund the following true statement about the tragic death of sherine khalil:

“Sherine Khalil Memorial Bursary in International Affairs(Norman
Paterson School of International Affairs-(Ottawa, Ontario, Canada):

Awarded annually to a deserving full-time student enrolled in the
M.A. program in International Affairs who is undertaking work on a
thesis related to developmental issues in the Third World, and is
in need of financial assistance in order to complete his/her
studies. Endowed in 1990 by friends and family of Sherine Khalil, a
graduate student in the Norman Paterson School of International
Affairs, who died tragically in the summer of 1990″

What I find supper about your books, is that you find it easy to identify with the caracters. I am catholic and for a long time I had lost my faith where I regained it through the book of this famous buddhist where now you, through your way of telling your stories, had guiden me to restablished my faith completely.

Thank you

el nica

“Gutta cavat lapidem, non vir(?) sed saepe cadendo.”
One of these latin citations my grandmother use to
stray around her…

*smile*
Josephine

Thank you so much Paulo for sharing

love
marie

Deli Mohan
Malaysia

Congratulations on yet another accomplishment that is already sure to touch the lives of millions.

The Lord certainly has blessed this world by putting you in it. Your words guide a lost soul.

Thank you.

Yours in friendship,
Bianca

I have read 7 books of yours, I am currently reading the fifth Mountain. I love your inner heart that speaks of great depth and widsom. As an Dyslexia I see life in a different way and I felt very much alone on my view on Love, Sex, dreams, God ect. But reading your books and listening to your interviews. I have learned so much about my-self and see what you told the world, we are all individals on the same jounrey through life. I know my dream is to become an actor in the theatre and I dream of working for the RSC, Royal Shakeaprce comany and the Nationl theatre down London. I see being Dyselxia has a gift that is made from a dream of love and happiness. Reading the Alchemsit made me realise the greatest treasure for me, was bieng dyslexia and taking that gift to develop into a rose at the drama school. I would like to express the personal happiness your books has givem me and I am a fan for life and I will alway contined to read your books of life, joureny among the Gods and Goddness. Because through your books I am always seeing my true voice and accepting my destiny.

Regards

Amit Gill

Reading Your answers is like a moment flashed by divine light; the moment stopped in the eternal space to feel the sacrament of mystery of our existence; the magical depth of this moment of being alive here and now and forever, through feeling the God and Goddess in confluence within us, giving birth to each moment and each of our action.

Reading Your answers is like a moment flashed by the sensations of flow and the breeze that blows us through the path; the constant movement that is already made by the soul as Your words of wisdom arise the inner changings…

Not mentioning each of Your amazing thought here, as it would be the simple repetition, i just wish to thank You from the bottom of my heart for all these great words that move me deeply !
I have also been thinking some time ago, but didn’t share with You that, as thought of it to be not so important - but my mind has just returned to this idea reading the fact that this is the 1st time a child appears in Your book.

I was thinking then that not only the child appears in the “Witch of Portobello”, but all of Your books in sequence are just like a symbol and metaphora of life in its transformation and metamorphoses - and though it would be a too vast analysis to make right now for me, but so i felt thinking about all Your characters with their personal searches and experiences, leading to the pregnant Esther and now Athena, who finally gives birth to a child.
In this i find some greatest mystery of life, its symbol of development and physical and ethemeral reincarnations. Transformation…
Perhaps, i am not stating it very clearly here, but i wish to hope that You will feel what I mean saying this.

Again, i congratulate You, Paulo, with this brilliant new book, which is a miracle and not only a challenge - it’s the revelation of divine female energy that once found may never be left, but only felt and lived with as a true essence of our universe and The Mother.

May God and the Goddess bless You and thank You for the “baring” light You poor on the universe and all Your readers.
I pray we will all have courage, spontaneity, craziness and inner freedom to be The Witches…

endless love,
Dasha

I was thrilled by the interview you gave regarding your latest work
…. and I was even more thrilled by the fact that you are going to Melk in Austria every year. Will you give a lecture there - or sign the new book…. can you give me the date when this is going to happen?

Being an Austrian myself - I would love to come on this “Danube-Ship-Melk” to listen to your words.
Please let me know when?

In divine friendship
yours
Monica Aulfes

I am so excited that a new book is on its way!! In between waiting for your new publications I re-read your books and always find a new sign to guide me on my path. I am particularly looking forward to your new book as I am a modern day “Witch” and will be interested to read your version of us…..

With love from
South Africa
Brayla
x

I must thank you for taking me on your journey over the past year. Thank you for your book club and blog. It was a great thing to me. I hope our paths will cross some day, maybe when I get a book published it will loosen my ties to Galway and let me travel to somewhere to meet you. If not there is always Paradise, a place we all goto on our last day, if even for a little while!

I look forward to your next book, if you can make it I would love a signed copy!!

Kealan.

To sum it all:-

“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.”

awaiting for your book to be released in the Middle East - Dubai.

regards,

Anisha

thank you