The Alchemist

　　天命與神旨的試煉 本書描述安達魯西亞的牧童狄雅各，為著一個重複出現的夢而決定橫渡廣袤的撒哈拉沙漠，到埃及的金字塔中挖掘夢中的寶藏。一年多的尋寶歷險，他遇到解夢的吉普賽人；指點預兆迷津的撒冷國王；騙取錢財的嚮導；收容他工作攢錢的水晶玻璃商人；遠來研究煉金術的英國學者；教他體會天命，試煉他的智慧與毅力的煉金術士；還有令他滋生愛苗的沙漠女人法諦瑪。就在預兆似乎應驗之際，在他拼命往沙丘挖寶的當兒，沙漠部落戰爭的首領奪走他隨身的金子，譏笑他執著夢境的愚蠢，然牧童卻從頭子口中透露的夢，頓悟寶藏就在故鄉教堂廢墟的無花果樹下 像是一部「成人童話」，一則寓言故事，不帶教條的福音佈道和心靈的勵志哲學。天命、信仰、夢想、愛心、實踐，是牧童聖狄雅各尋寶探險終而如願以償的憑藉。

　　Paulo Coelho was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the city where he now lives. His own life has in many ways been as varied and unusual as the protagonists of his internationally acclaimed novels. Like them, Paulo Coelho has followed a dream in a quest for fulfillment. His own dream, to be a writer, met with frustration throughout much of his early adult life, a time in which he worked at various professions, some of them materially rewarding but spiritually unfulfilling. "I always knew," he says, "that my Personal Legend, to use a term from alchemy, was to write." He was 38 when he published his first book.
　　In 1970, after deciding that law school was not for him, he traveled through much of South America, North Africa, Mexico, and Europe. Returning to Brazil after two years, he began a successful career as popular songwriter. In 1974, he was imprisoned for a short time by the military dictatorship then ruling in Brazil. In 1980, he experienced one of the defining moments of his life: he walked the 500-plus mile Road of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain. On this ancient highway, used for centuries by pilgrims from France to get to the cathedral said to house the remains of St. James, he achieved a self-awareness and a spiritual awakening that he later described in The Pilgrimage.
　　
　　Paulo Coelho once said that following your dream is like learning a foreign language; you will make mistakes but you will get there in the end. In 1988, he published The Alchemist, a novel that explores this theme, and it launched him as an international bestselling author. Specifically, Paulo Coelho is recognized for his powerful storytelling technique and the profound spiritual insights he blends seamlessly into his parables. Since then, The Alchemist has sold more than 11 million copies worldwide and has been translated into some 41 languages. In addition to The Pilgrimage and The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho has written luminous novels about the different streams of our lives, including By The River Piedra I Sat Down & Wept, The Valkyries, The Fifth Mountain, and Veronika Decides to Die. A winner of numerous literary prizes, Paulo Coelho is also a prominent speaker for humanitarian causes. In 1999, he received a Crystal Award for Artistic Achievement at the Davos Economic Forum Conference.

不希望它在未來是暢銷書	来自燃	1 回应	2008-04-07