The Alchemist-By Paulo Coelho -Click Here To Download

The Alchemist(HarperCollins2003) is a fable, efficiently written, minus the character-animals that comprise the genre by definition. Coelho's writing style here is simple, written linearly, and sprinkled with flashbacks of Santiago's days in Andalusia and the omens he reads as his journey unfolds. The author spends little time with with scene-setting, and gives readers only the minute, necessary details, concentrating more on his story's message. Dialog is what one would expect from characters in a mystic/inspirational fable: anecdotal exchanges, abstract ideologies that readers must interpret, just as Santiago must interpret the omens of the world.

The novel reads quickly, does not suffer from a slow start, and by no means is epic in its expanse. Coelho gets it done in just shy of 170 pages; readers could finish the book in a day or two.

The Alchemistis an inspirational fable, enchanting, and meant to motivate readers to analyze their own lives, to weigh the past against the future, to listen for a calling. Santiago is an unassuming and humble character, and has dreams beyond the Andalusian plains. He is simple, and readers will identify with him, with what he has to lose and what he has to gain. Coelho's inspiration is this: that if people can identify the unnecessary things and relinquish them, they will realize what the world truly has in store.