Paulo Coelho

In this Portuguese name, the first or maternal family name is Coelho and the second or paternal family name is Souza.

Paulo Coelho
Coelho in June 2024
Coelho in June 2024
Born
Paulo Coelho de Souza

(1947-08-24) 24 August 1947 (age 78)
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Occupation
  • Lyricist
  • writer
GenreDrama, romance
Years active1974–present
Notable worksThe Alchemist
Spouse
​
(m. 1980)​
Website
paulocoelho.com

Paulo Coelho de Souza (/ˈkwɛl.juː, kuˈɛl.juː, -joʊ/ KWEL-yoo, koo-EL-yoo, -⁠yoh,[1] Portuguese: [ˈpawlu kuˈeʎu]; born 24 August 1947) is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist. He has been a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters since 2002.[2] His 1988 novel The Alchemist is an international best-seller.

Early life

Paulo Coelho was born on 24 August 1947 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and attended a Jesuit school. At age 17, Coelho's parents committed him to a mental institution from which he escaped three times before being released at the age of 20.[3][4]

On his parents' wishes, Coelho enrolled in law school and abandoned his dream of becoming a writer. One year later, he dropped out and lived life as a hippie, travelling through South America, North Africa, Mexico, and Europe. He started using drugs in the 1960s.[5][6]

Career

Upon his return to Brazil, Coelho worked as a songwriter, composing lyrics for Elis Regina, Rita Lee, and Raul Seixas.[7] In 1974, Coelho was arrested for “subversive” activities and was tortured while in custody.[4] Coelho also worked as an actor, journalist, and theatre director before pursuing his writing career.

In 1982, Coelho published his first book, Hell Archives, which was not very successful. In 1986, he contributed to the Practical Manual of Vampirism, although he later tried to take it off the shelves since he considered it to be of poor quality. Also in 1986, Coelho walked the Camino de Santiago in northwestern Spain.[5][8] Coelho later described the experience as a personal spiritual turning point.[9][10] Afterwards, Coelho wrote The Pilgrimage, published in 1987.

The following year, Coelho wrote The Alchemist and published it through a small Brazilian publishing house that made an initial print run of 900 copies and decided not to reprint it.[11] He subsequently found a bigger publishing house, and with the publication of his next book Brida, The Alchemist saw further commercial success. HarperCollins published the book in 1994. Later, it became an international bestseller.[12] In a 2009 interview with Forward Magazine, Coelho stated that the Sufi tradition had been an influence on him, particularly when writing The Alchemist and later The Zahir.[13]

In 2016, he was contacted by basketball player Kobe Bryant, who wanted to discuss a children's book project with him. Some months before Bryant's death in a helicopter crash in January 2020, they started to write the book together. Following Bryant's death, Coelho chose to discontinue the project.[14][15]

Four of his novels – The Pilgrimage, Hippie, The Valkyries, and Aleph – are autobiographical, while the majority of the rest are fictional.[5] Other books, like Maktub, The Manual of the Warrior of Light, and Like the Flowing River, are collections of essays, newspaper columns, or selected teachings.

Reception

His work has been published in more than 170 countries and translated into eighty-three languages. His books have sold 320 million copies.[16]

Though Coelho is a self-described Catholic, his stance has been criticized as incompatible with the Catholic faith because of its New Age, pantheist, and relativist contents.[17] Reviews of Coelho's later work have called it superficial.[18][19][20]

Film

The biographical film Paulo Coelho's Best Story (Não Pare na Pista) is a co-production between Brazil’s Dama Filmes and Spain's Babel Films[21] in which younger and older versions of Coelho are played by two different actors. The film, shot in Portuguese, had its premiere in Brazilian theatres in 2014 and was internationally distributed in 2015.[22]

Personal life

Coelho married the artist Christina Oiticica in 1980. They previously spent half the year in Rio de Janeiro and the other half in a French country house in the Pyrenees, but now the couple reside in Geneva, Switzerland.[23]

Bibliography

Year Portuguese title English title
1974 Teatro da Educação Theatre For Education
1982 Arquivos do Inferno Hell Archives
1987 O Diário de um Mago The Pilgrimage
1988 O Alquimista The Alchemist
1990 Brida Brida
1991 O Dom Supremo The Supreme Gift
1992 As Valkírias The Valkyries
1994 Maktub Maktub
Na Margem do Rio Piedra eu Sentei e Chorei By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
1996 O Monte Cinco The Fifth Mountain
1997 Cartas de Amor de um Profeta Love Letters from a Prophet
Manual do Guerreiro da Luz Manual of the Warrior of Light
1998 Veronika Decide Morrer Veronika Decides to Die
Palavras Essenciais Essential Words
2000 O Demônio e a Srta. Prym The Devil and Miss Prym
2001 Historias para Pais, Filhos e Netos Fathers, Sons and Grandsons
2003 Onze Minutos Eleven Minutes
2004 O Gênio e as Rosas The Genie and the Roses
Viagens Journeys
Vida Life
2005 O Zahir The Zahir
Caminhos Recolhidos Revived Paths
2006 Ser Como o Rio que Flui Like the Flowing River
A Bruxa de Portobello The Witch of Portobello
2008 O Vencedor Está Só The Winner Stands Alone
2009 Amor Love
2010 Aleph Aleph
2011 Fábulas
2012 Manuscrito Encontrado em Accra Manuscript Found in Accra
2014 Adultério Adultery
2016 A Espiã The Spy
2018 Hippie Hippie
2020 O Caminho do Arco The Archer

References

  1. ^ Wells, J.C. (2008). Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Pearson Education.
  2. ^ "Paulo Coelho – Biografia". Academia Brasileira de Letras. Retrieved 4 November 2014.
  3. ^ Doland, Angela (12 May 2007). "Author Paulo Coelho Thrives on Extremes". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 1 March 2026.
  4. ^ a b Day, Elizabeth (13 June 2005). "A mystery even to himself". The Telegraph.
  5. ^ a b c "An interview with Brazilian spiritual fiction writer, Paul Coelho". Life Positive. July 2000. Archived from the original on 9 February 2014.
  6. ^ Goodyear, Dana (30 April 2007). "The Magus". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 1 March 2026.
  7. ^ Cichetto, Luiz Carlos Barata (13 September 2012). "Cópia Infiel: Ato 1, Raul Seixas e o Dolo de Ouro". whiplash.net (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 9 October 2020.
  8. ^ Coelho, Paulo; Jurskis, Amy (24 June 2014). A Teacher's Guide to The Alchemist. HarperOne. ISBN 9780062374240.
  9. ^ "Paulo Coelho Dances with Angels". Beliefnet. July 2008. Retrieved 1 March 2026.
  10. ^ "BBC World Service - World Book Club, Paulo Coelho - The Alchemist". BBC. 12 December 2004. Retrieved 1 March 2026.
  11. ^ Decherney, Sophia; Raikar, Sanat Pai (5 December 2024). "The Alchemist". Britannica. Retrieved 1 March 2026.
  12. ^ Cowles, Gregory (2 December 2016). "The Story Behind This Week's Best Sellers". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 21 June 2025.
  13. ^ Moubayed, Sami (12 April 2009). "Paolo Coelho tells Syrians: My writings are influenced by your Sufi tradition". Forward Magazine. Retrieved 23 August 2020.
  14. ^ Co-Author of Kobe Bryant Children's Book Deletes Unfinished Draft
  15. ^ "Author deletes children's book co-written with Kobe Bryant". Associated Press. 27 January 2020. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
  16. ^ Heller, Karen (20 December 2016). "Meet the writers who still sell millions of books. Actually, hundreds of millions". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 1 March 2026.
  17. ^ Santamaría, Luis (23 July 2014). "Paulo Coelho: ¿alguna objeción desde la fe cristiana?" [Paulo Coelho: any objection from the Christian faith?]. Aleteia (in Spanish). Retrieved 22 May 2017.
  18. ^ Mars-Jones, Adam (19 June 2005). "Now there's a thought". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 1 March 2026.
  19. ^ Mars-Jones, Adam (15 September 2014). "Adultery, Paulo Coelho, book review: New novel fails to stimulate". The Independent. Retrieved 1 March 2026.
  20. ^ Woodhead, Cameron (19 January 2017). "The Spy review: Paulo Coelho's fictional take on Mata Hari misses the mark". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 1 March 2026.
  21. ^ Sarda, Juan (1 July 2013). "Paulo Coelho biopic details emerge". Screen Daily. Retrieved 1 March 2026.
  22. ^ Barraclough, Leo (5 August 2014). "Picture Tree Acquires Paulo Coelho Biopic 'The Pilgrim' (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved 1 March 2026.
  23. ^ Giron, Luis Antônio (6 June 2014). "Interview with Paulo Coelho". Agogô. Archived from the original on 12 June 2016.
allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paolo_Coelho