Author : Paulo Coelho
Publisher : HarperCollins
Year of publication : 1993
Price : ₹299
Isbn : 978-81-7223-498-0
Pages : 161
Alchemist is one of those books which deserves a space in everyone’s book shelf. It is fable about following your dreams. It is an inspirational story of Santiago, a shepherd boy of Andalusia . He loves to travel and he became a shepherd so that he could travel to different places.
The book stars with the beautiful prologue of Narcissus that gives a deep feel to read the book. The story starts of him seeing a dream twice. The dream was something like, he finding a treasure. He wanted to interpret dreams. So he went to a Gypsy and her interpretation was that, he must go the Pyramids in Egypt. One day while sitting in the plaza, an old man interrupts him. As they talked he said that he was the king of Salem and his name was Melchizedek. He demanded one-tenth of his sheep in exchange for the information about the treasure. Their conversation included stories, omens and so on. He inspired him to travel in order to reach the treasure. He also gave him 2 stones called Urim and Thummim. The thoughts and phrases he told found a place in the boy’s heart.
On his way to the treasure he had to cross the narrow street of tangier where he had to meet a thief who robbed his money, a candy maker who gave him a sweet for free. He also met a crystal merchant with whom he had to work for months to make enough money.
He met an Englishman who was travelling to find an Alchemist, a man who knows all secrets of the world and the ones who can also turn any metal to gold. He met the alchemist who helped him throughout his life. He also got a girl to love whom he had met in the beautiful oasis in the desert.
The story is all about adventures. In his path to find the treasure he had to leap several walls, meet different people, learn different languages, traditions, religions and so on. Every line fill our hearts with good thoughts and desires giving us a feel to read further.
Aalia Thahzin
VIII D
5629
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