Paulo Coelho was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His own life has in many ways been as varied and unusual as the protagonists of his internationally acclaimed novels. Like them, he 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 a popular songwriter. In 1974 he was imprisoned for a short time by the military dictatorship then ruling in Brazil. In 1986, 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.
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, 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 and 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.
We have a huge range of audio books , but if you can't find what you are looking for, please email us. We can obtain almost any audiobook title on CD , cassette & now MP3.
Please join our MAILING LIST for special offers, discounts & news of the latest audio books.
Why listen to audio books? In today's busy world, finding time to sit down to read for most people is very difficult. With audio books, "reading" can be done whilst driving, ironing, cooking, jogging. In fact just about at any time. Revisit some classics, Jane Eyre. Or the latest Clive Cussler.
For children, audio books are a way to get children loving books from an early age. It is well known that children that read do better at school.
When studying for GCSEs, many parents have realised how much listening to To Kill a Mockingbird or Of Mice and Men can help in understanding a text. And it's effortless! To hear a book read well is to enjoy a book the way it was intended.
