There are hardly a few writers whose writings awakens our soul and makes us better as a person. Few books can touch our souls and leave an imprint that will stay forever. And most importantly there are very few writers who can awaken this soul-awakening spirit in a person! Paulo Coelho is that writer who infuses a strange sense of realization within us that coerces us to find the true meaning in our lives. Every time one reads his novels, a deep sense of self-realization and self-discovery strikes us.
But his life was so full of incidents that are so uncommon from our regular human lives. He hails from Brazil. He was born in Rio de Janeiro and did his schooling from there. Unlike other teenagers, he had a pretty rough teenage and was admitted to a mental institution by his parents at the age of 17. He was finally released from there at the age of 20 but had escaped the place several three times in between.
After his release from the institution, his parents wanted to secure his future and asked him to join a law school to which he agreed. Later after a year, he escaped law school and chose a life different from many of his contemporaries. He chose to be a hippie and roamed around North America, South America, Europe and Mexico. He was also into drugs and other intoxications. He is married to a Brazilian artist Christina Oiticica. After returning from his hippie lifestyle, he worked as a songwriter and had composed lyrics for Elis Regina, Rita Lee and Raul Seixas. His association with Raul Seixas made him explore many roads of magic and occultism. He has a pretty colourful life and has also been arrested for a time by the then military government under the charges of his writings being left-wing oriented. He then finally wrote The Alchemist which is the best-selling novel by a Brazilian author and whose 150 Million copies has been sold around the world. His other novels like The Pilgrimage, Veronica Decides to Die, By the River Piedra, I sat down and wept, The Spy and many more are internationally acclaimed and has given him huge fame.
