Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho, author of “The Alchemist”, turns 75

Paulo Coelho, the author of “The Alchemist”, reached his 75th birthday on Wednesday, August 24, as the most influential Brazilian alive today and one of the most widely read writers on the planet.

Loved by millions and hated by specialized critics, who consider that his massive success does not determine the quality of his work, the writer is, above all, a sales phenomenon.

His famous enigmatic metaphors with reflections on the meaning of life have turned his works into a sort of novelized self-help books, which hit the key to success in bookstores worldwide.

His works, translated into 88 languages, have sold more than 320 million copies in 170 countries worldwide, according to data from the Companhia das Letras group, which has been publishing his books in Brazil since 2016.

HIS BIGGEST SUCCESS.

“The Alchemist” (1988), his most successful work, broke a record of 427 consecutive weeks on The New York Times bestseller list and is the favorite gift for Americans for students finishing high school.

Not surprisingly, the book alone sells close to one million copies annually in that country.

The book has been praised by personalities such as former U.S. President Barack Obama and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai.

It has also been recommended by renowned writers such as Italy’s Umberto Eco and Nobel Literature Laureate Kenzaburo-Oé and athletes such as Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton and the late NBA star Kobe Bryant.

The Brazilian writer has already published 21 successful works since his first bestseller, “The Diary of a Magician” (1987), based on his pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, which will celebrate its 35th anniversary in 2022.

Based since 2007 in Geneva (Switzerland), Coelho continues to add literary successes and, in 2018, launched his most recent novel, “Hippie”, which is considered his most autobiographical work.

A REBELLIOUS SPIRIT

The son of a well-to-do family, Coelho showed his inclination for letters from a young age at the Jesuit school where he studied in Rio de Janeiro, the city where he was born, but his tastes for poetry, writing, and theater were not approved by his parents, who expected him to become an engineer.

His adolescence passed then between depression and therapies, and he even ended up hospitalized several times in nursing homes, but nothing kept him away from his love for art.

In his youth, he was already a literary critic, but he also dedicated himself to theater, was a reporter in the leading newspapers of Rio de Janeiro, and worked with some music record companies.

THE ROCKER

At a time marked by the eccentricities and psychedelia of the 1960s, amid a dictatorship that imposed censorship in the country and after having traveled to “spiritually striking” destinations such as Bolivia, Machu Pichu, Amsterdam, and several Eastern countries, Coelho met the rocker Raul Freixas, with whom he would begin a musical career, a little known period of the writer abroad.

Together they composed more than 40 songs, some of which are part of Brazilian rock classics such as “Agua viva”, “Gita,” and “Sociedade alternativa”, even though Coelho also wrote lyrics for other Brazilian artists such as Rita Lee, Zé Rodrix and Roberto Menescal, one of the founders of Bossa Nova.

His last participation in the song universe was the version of the Mexican bolero “Me vuelves loco” by Armando Manzanero, a hit in Brazil in the voice of Elis Regina.

Wirth information from EFE