Coelho's next book, Brida, was well-received, however, and as a result, both The Pilgrimage and The Alchemist became best-sellers. The novel sold only nine hundred copies initially and was not reprinted. The following year The Alchemist was published. Published in 1987, the book's commercial and cultural impact was at first negligible. Inspired by his journey to Santiago de Compostela, Coelho wrote The Pilgrimage: Diary of Magus, about extraordinary events that happen to ordinary people. As a result, he experienced an epiphany that readers of The Alchemist will recognize: He decided to follow his dream. His life's major turning point occurred when Coelho met a stranger in an Amsterdam café who told him to make the traditional Roman Catholic pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Northern Spain.

Afterwards, retreating into conventionality, he worked as a music-industry executive. He also wrote lyrics for rock songs and collaborated on a political comic strip.īecause of his progressive activities, Coelho was kidnapped and tortured by a Brazilian paramilitary group in 1974. He became involved with a theater group as an actor and director and worked as a journalist, founding a magazine called 2001. According to Coelho, his parents responded to his artistic aspirations and to his introverted personality by committing him to a mental institution and approving electroconvulsive ('shock') therapy for their son.Ĭoelho enrolled in law school as a young man but dropped out to travel, through Latin America, North Africa, and Europe. He attended a Jesuit school, and from a young age Coelho dreamed of becoming a writer. Paulo Coelho was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1947, the son of an engineer and a housewife.

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