Paolo Coelho (Born in 1947 )

Paulo Coelho was born in 1947 in Rio de Janeiro. He traveled throughout much of South America, North Africa, Mexico, and Europe. Returning to Brazil after two years, he began a prosperous career as a popular songwriter. In 1974 he was incarcerated for a short time by the military dictatorship then ruling in Brazil.
Coelho published his first book, “Hell Archives”, in 1982, which had no success. In 1986, he experienced one of the most important moments of his life: he walked the 500-plus mile Road of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain and later to be documented in his book The Pilgrimage.

Paolo Coelho is considered the best-selling Portuguese language author; whose dozen titles have sold over 40 million books worldwide, after Gabriel Garcia Marquez, he is the Latin America’s most read novelist. His books have emerged on bestseller records in countries not only in Brazil but in the UK, the United States, France, Germany, Iran, Canada, Italy, Israel, Finland, Serbia, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia, Cuba, Poland and Lithuania. Coelho’s more recent productions, such as Veronika Decides to Die, The Fifth Mountain, are more refined than the new-age spiritual fables with which he was done acquaintance in the mid-1990s, such as The Alchemist and The Pilgrimage.

He has received several literary prizes from a diversity of countries, including La Légion d'honneur (France), Grinzane Cavour (Italy). In 1999 he received a Crystal Award for Artistic Achievement at the Davos Economic Forum Conference.

Coelho’s most important works include:

The Winner is Alone (2008)
The Wizard, Fernando Morais (2008)
The Witch of Portobello (2006)
Like the Flowing River (2006)
The Zahir (2005)
Eleven Minutes (2003)
Children and Grandchildren (2001)
The Devil and Miss Prym (2000)
Veronika decides to die (1998)
The Manual of the Warrior of Light (1997)
Love letters from a prophet (1997)
The Fifth Mountain (1996)
By the River Piedra I sat down and Wept (1994)
Maktub (1994)
The Valkyries (1992)
Dom Supremo: the Greatest Gift (1991)
Brida (1990)
The Alchemist (1988)
The Pilgrimage (O Diário de um Mago)(1987)

The Pilgrimage