The Alchemist is a pleasant and easy to read story, but I felt the author tried to be too clever, without totally suceeding. Yet the book contains some fine reading.

The story‘s narrative flows well, with high points and low points, and with likeable characters. It is the quest story of a small shepherd boy who follows his dream to find a treasure. After having had a dream, he gives up his current existence and goes in search of this dream.

The main character is a sheperd boy that after having the dream embarks himself in a crusade to reach the piramids of Egypt after going accross the desert. A gypsy woman and a mysterious king advise him to pursue his destiny. The old man says to Santiago: "To realize one's destiny is a person's only obligation. All things are one. And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it."

Of course there are many difficulties in his way that prevent him from fulfilling his dream – but what happens at the end, I will not disclose here.

The protagonist must choose whether to stay in his current status or to keep walking and taking risks. Though he finally achieves his dream, sometimes he loses everything he had in that moment.

The structure of the story can be compared with the style of life of determined people who chase a dream until they get it. For this reason, the story itself tries to project a practical message.

Generally this is an uplifting and inspirational piece of writing. I trully believe it is a book that we should read at least once in our life-time to question ourselves about our own purpose in life.

Coelho's writing is smooth and liquid; it runs off the page at a fair pace, and you should be able to gobble it up in a couple of hours.

 50 million copies of this book have been sold world-wide and if you haven’t read it

Sonia Ujcikova