The Alchemist

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is the story of a young Spanish boy, Santiago who sees a recurring dream of a treasure under the Egyptian pyramids. So he sets forth from his life of shepherding to try and obtain that treasure. He meets an Old King on the way who gives Santiago two magic beans for his path ahead. Santiago also meets the love of his life on the way to the pyramids and learns alchemy. He takes up small, diverse jobs to earn enough money to reach Egypt and then the pyramids. Meeting all sorts of people on his journey, learning from their experiences and developing his own deep thoughts and conclusions.

An Alchemist would be someone who creates an object through a seemingly magical process. The most common example would be to create gold from any metal you hold and that’s what draws a lot of people to the art of alchemy. While what we learn through the book is that the story of Santiago is just the backbone of the flesh of human existence, and a metaphor for explaining our purpose in life. The book is a mystical adventure of what is lost and what is found. But what is truly remarkable is what comes in the middle. A book filled with million lessons, each of which will take you in deep thoughts.

The book is filled with thought-provoking questions, little reminders that life is short and we must march towards our goal all the time. Or at least work in the direction of our goal. Paulo Coelho incorporates the old wisdom into different scenes and includes the burning questions as thoughts that Santiago would have. Also, he addresses them heads on in a way that you could pick up clues as to how that applies to YOU. Which is a very big deal because millions have read this book and resonate with the ideas that it proposes.

It is as much difficult to explain in words how the book is, as it is to explain the meaning of life. But I can tell you this much that you will not regret reading this book. It is easy to read, interesting and will be on your mind all the time.

Few of my favorite quotes from the book:

“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second’s encounter with God and with eternity.” - Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

“If someone isn’t what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.” - Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

“Love is not to be found in someone else but in ourselves; we simply awaken it. But in order to do that, we need the other person.” - Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

“One is loved because one s loved. No reason is needed for loving.” - Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

“You can become blind by seeing each day as a similar one. Each day is a different one, each day brings a miracle of its own. It’s just a matter of paying attention to this miracle.” - Paulo Coelho,The Alchemist

“It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.”- Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”- Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist