The Alchemist

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Текст книги "The Alchemist"

Автор книги: Paulo Coelho

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“I’m not hiding anything,” the boy answered.

But one of them seized the boy and yanked him back out of the hole. Another, who was searching the boy’s bags, found the piece of gold.

“There’s gold here,” he said.

The moon shone on the face of the Arab who had seized him, and in the man’s eyes the boy saw death.

“He’s probably got more gold hidden in the ground.”

They made the boy continue digging, but he found nothing. As the sun rose, the men began to beat the boy. He was bruised and bleeding, his clothing was torn to shreds, and he felt that death was near.

“What good is money to you if you’re going to die? It’s not often that money can save someone’s life,” the alchemist had said. Finally, the boy screamed at the men, “I’m digging for treasure!” And, although his mouth was bleeding and swollen, he told his attackers that he had twice dreamed of a treasure hidden near the Pyramids of Egypt.

The man who appeared to be the leader of the group spoke to one of the others: “Leave him. He doesn’t have anything else. He must have stolen this gold.”

The boy fell to the sand, nearly unconscious. The leader shook him and said, “We’re leaving.”

But before they left, he came back to the boy and said, “You’re not going to die. You’ll live, and you’ll learn that a man shouldn’t be so stupid. Two years ago, right here on this spot, I had a recurrent dream, too. I dreamed that I should travel to the fields of Spain and look for a ruined church where shepherds and their sheep slept. In my dream, there was a sycamore growing out of the ruins of the sacristy, and I was told that, if I dug at the roots of the sycamore, I would find a hidden treasure. But I’m not so stupid as to cross an entire desert just because of a recurrent dream.”

And they disappeared.

The boy stood up shakily, and looked once more at the Pyramids. They seemed to laugh at him, and he laughed back, his heart bursting with joy.

Because now he knew where his treasure was.

EPILOGUE

THE BOY REACHED THE SMALL, ABANDONED CHURCH JUST as night was falling. The sycamore was still there in the sacristy, and the stars could still be seen through the half-destroyed roof. He remembered the time he had been there with his sheep; it had been a peaceful night…except for the dream.

Now he was here not with his flock, but with a shovel.

He sat looking at the sky for a long time. Then he took from his knapsack a bottle of wine, and drank some. He remembered the night in the desert when he had sat with the alchemist, as they looked at the stars and drank wine together. He thought of the many roads he had traveled, and of the strange way God had chosen to show him his treasure. If he hadn’t believed in the significance of recurrent dreams, he would not have met the Gypsy woman, the king, the thief, or…“Well, it’s a long list. But the path was written in the omens, and there was no way I could go wrong,” he said to himself.

He fell asleep, and when he awoke the sun was already high. He began to dig at the base of the sycamore.

“You old sorcerer,” the boy shouted up to the sky. “You knew the whole story. You even left a bit of gold at the monastery so I could get back to this church. The monk laughed when he saw me come back in tatters. Couldn’t you have saved me from that?”

“No,” he heard a voice on the wind say. “If I had told you, you wouldn’t have seen the Pyramids. They’re beautiful, aren’t they?”

The boy smiled, and continued digging. Half an hour later, his shovel hit something solid. An hour later, he had before him a chest of Spanish gold coins. There were also precious stones, gold masks adorned with red and white feathers, and stone statues embedded with jewels. The spoils of a conquest that the country had long ago forgotten, and that some conquistador had failed to tell his children about.

The boy took out Urim and Thummim from his bag. He had used the two stones only once, one morning when he was at a marketplace. His life and his path had always provided him with enough omens.

He placed Urim and Thummim in the chest. They were also a part of his new treasure, because they were a reminder of the old king, whom he would never see again.

It’s true; life really is generous to those who pursue their Personal Legend, the boy thought. Then he remembered that he had to get to Tarifa so he could give one-tenth of his treasure to the Gypsy woman, as he had promised. Those Gypsies are really smart, he thought. Maybe it was because they moved around so much.

The wind began to blow again. It was the levanter, the wind that came from Africa. It didn’t bring with it the smell of the desert, nor the threat of Moorish invasion. Instead, it brought the scent of a perfume he knew well, and the touch of a kiss—a kiss that came from far away, slowly, slowly, until it rested on his lips.

The boy smiled. It was the first time she had done that.

“I’m coming, Fatima,” he said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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 thirty-eight 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 five hundred-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 twenty million copies worldwide and has been translated into some fifty-six 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.

International Acclaim for Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist

“The story has the comic charm, dramatic tension, and psychological intensity of a fairy tale, but it’s full of specific wisdom as well…. A sweetly exotic tale for young and old alike.”

–Publishers Weekly

“Beneath this novel’s compelling story and the shimmering elegance with which it’s told lies a bedrock of wisdom about following one’s heart.”

–Booklist

“As memorable and meaningful as Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince.”

–Austin American-Statesman

“A touching, inspiring fable.”

–Indianapolis Star

“A little poke in the ribs from on high.”

–Detroit Free Press

“The Alchemist is a fabulous success.”

–Der Spiegel (Germany)

“A remarkable tale about the most magical of all journeys: the quest to fulfill one’s destiny. I recommend The Alchemist to anyone who is passionately committed to claiming the life of their dreams—today.”

–Anthony Robbins, author of

Awaken the Giant Within

“An entrepreneurial tale of universal wisdom we can apply to the business of our own lives.”

–Spencer Johnson, M.D., author of

Who Moved My Cheese

“An adventure story full of magic and wisdom.”

–Rudolfo Anaya, author of Bless Me, Ultima

“The Alchemist is a beautiful book about magic, dreams and the treasures we seek elsewhere and then find at our doorstep.”

–Madonna in Sonntag-Aktuell (Germany)

“The Alchemist is an unabashed delight and inspirational wonder. This fable is a roseate amalgam of spiritual quest, existential puzzle, lovely sensitivity, and deep strength.”

–Malcolm Boyd, author of

Are You Running with Me, Jesus?

“Paulo Coelho knows the secret of literary alchemy.”

–Kenzaburo Oé, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

“A most tender and gentle story. It is a rare gem of a book, and will most certainly touch the very core of every heart earnestly seeking its own destiny on the journey of life.”

–Gerald G. Jampolsky, M.D., coauthor of

Change Your Mind, Change Your Life and Love Is Letting Go of Fear

“Rarely do I come across a story with the directness and simplicity of Coelho’s The Alchemist. It lifts the reader out of time and focuses through a believably unlikely story on a young dreamer looking for himself. A beautiful story with a pointed message for every reader.”

–Joseph Girzone, author of Joshua

“This is the type of book that makes you understand more about yourself and about life. It has philosophy, and is spiced with colors, flavors and subjects, like a fairy tale. A lovely book.”

–Yedi’ot Aharonot (Israel)

“A boy named Santiago joins the ranks of Candide and Pinocchio by taking us on a very excellent adventure.”

–Paul Zindel, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning play,

The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds

“The mystic quality in the odd adventures of the boy, Santiago, may bring not only him but others who read this fine book closer to recognizing and reaching their own inner destinies.”

–Charlotte Zolotow, author of If You Listen

“Paulo Coelho gives you the inspiration to follow your own dreams by seeing the world through your own eyes and not someone else’s.”

–Lynn Andrews, author of the Medicine Woman series

“Nothing is impossible, such is Coelho’s message, as long as you wish it with all your heart. No other book bears so much hope, small wonder its author became a guru among all those in search of the meaning of life.”

–Focus (Germany)

“The Alchemist is a truly poetic book.”

–Welt am Sonntag (Germany)

“Dotted throughout the story and illuminated in a poetic style are metaphors and deep insights that stir our imagination and transport the reader on a fantastic journey of the soul.”

–Yomiuri-Shinbun (Japan)

“The Alchemist brings to mind The Little Prince by Saint-Exupéry and The Prophet by Khalil Gibran, as well as biblical parables.”

–Gazeta Wymborcza (Poland)

“The Alchemist is a beautiful and heartwarming story with an exotic flavor…. You may or may not agree with PauloCoelho’s philosophy, but it’s nonetheless a tale that comforts our hearts as much as our souls.”

–Bergensavisen (Norway)

“The Alchemist is like a modern-day The Little Prince. A supreme and simple book.”

–Milorad Pavic (Serbia)

“Among Latin American writers, only Columbia’s Gabriel Garcia Marquez is more widely read than Brazil’s Paulo Coelho.”

–The Economist

ALSO BY PAULO COELHO

The Pilgrimage: A Contemporary Quest for Ancient Wisdom

The Valkyries: An Encounter with Angels

By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

The Fifth Mountain

The Illustrated Alchemist

Veronika Decides to Die

CREDITS

Cover design: Doreen Louie Cover photograph � by J. Sims/FPG International

Copyright

This book is an English version of O Alquimista, the Portuguese original edition, published in Brazil by Editora Rocco Ltd. (Rio de Janeiro). Copyright © 1988 by Paulo Coelho. This edition was prepared by Alan R. Clarke in consultation with Paulo Coelho.

THE ALCHEMIST. Copyright © 1993 by Paulo Coelho. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books™.

ePub edition July 2005 ISBN 9780061741241

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been ordered.

ISBN 0–06–250217–4 (cloth)

ISBN 0–06–250218–2 (paperback)

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