His novels are bestsellers, but writing is a path to self-discovery for Brazilian author Paulo Coelho. Maybe it saved him, too, as it gives direction to millions of readers.
Brazilian bestselling author Paulo Coelho has been born at least twice. Once when he was born and once when he became a writer.
This is how his recognized biographer Fernando Morais describes it in the book “The Magician”. According to this, the birth as a writer happened on February 23, 1982 in the Dachau concentration camp memorial site, where Coelho had a fleeting encounter, from which a pilgrimage to the Way of St. James was created.
The 1987 Diary of the Journey to Santiago de Compostela grew into his first success as an author. Since then, writing has brought world fame and fortune to the Brazilian, who celebrates his 75th birthday on August 24. His novels, above all “The Alchemist”, “Veronika Decides to Die” and most recently “And Love Never Ends”, became bestsellers, according to his Zurich publisher “Diogenes” translated into 88 languages and sold more than 320 million copies.
A path to self-knowledge
Such figures are matched or surpassed only by other global authors such as JK Rowling with “Harry Potter” or Dan Brown (“The Da Vinci Code”). Coelho, who has won dozens of international prizes, was not concerned with money or fame when writing. “It’s a path to self-discovery,” he said at a time when he was still giving frequent interviews. And an opportunity to share your thoughts and ideas on the meaning of life and other existential questions of humanity with countless readers around the globe.
So he often lets his protagonists, like the shepherd Santiago in the book “The Alchemist”, follow a path of self-discovery. Santiago, for example, moves from Andalusia to Egypt to look for a treasure of gold that ends up being buried under a chapel in his homeland. Coelho’s followers, personalities ranging from pop star Madonna to Nobel Prize winner for literature Kenzaburo Oe, honor the author as a kind of “guru” for such parables.
His words may have a magical effect. But Coelho’s language is simple and his messages are easy to understand, so that “The Alchemist” is also suitable as a first reading when learning Portuguese, for example. All this is too easy for critics. However, Coelho himself experienced the search for the meaning of life in a turbulent, extreme way.
He ended up in psychiatry
When the teenager rebelled against family norms in Rio de Janeiro – the parents wanted the son to be an engineer like his father – father Pedro Coelho dismissed this as a mental illness. Paulo was committed to a psychiatric institution, “treated” with electric shocks. As a writer, he later processed these experiences in “Veronika Decides to Die”.
Coelho initially worked as a journalist, playwright and screenwriter, experimenting with drugs and black magic during the hippie era. He gained a certain notoriety in Brazil as the writer of the lyrics for the rock legend Raul Seixas, with whom the social rebel also shared anti-capitalist attitudes. During the military dictatorship (1964-1985), against which he protested with the lyrics, Coelho was captured and tortured for days.
The turning point in Coelho’s life finally came at the Dachau concentration camp memorial site, where he encountered his demons from the psychiatric institution and from being tortured – and the first birth as a writer. Perhaps writing saved Paulo Coelho. In any case, it has given balance to his soul, as their art helps many times or musicians.
Coelho, who lives in Geneva with his wife, the Brazilian painter Christina Oiticica, has officially not been in Rio de Janeiro for years. “Today, Brazil is one of the most marginalized countries in the world,” he said, like many left-wing intellectuals in Latin America, in an interview with the Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo last year, referring to right-wing populist President Jair Bolsonaro.
But if you come across a black-clad, jovial man with a goatee while walking in Copacabana, it could very well be Paulo Coelho. He makes these detours incognito, so to speak, Coelho told the magazine “Veja” to satisfy the longing. He goes for walks on the beach, drinks coconut water, visits his favorite restaurants and hangs out with a small, discreet group of friends.
Even if people recognize him, they wouldn’t believe it’s really the famous author. Coelho laughed at one of the speculations that he would not come to Rio out of superstition because something would happen to him on arrival. The demons of the past, he seems to have made peace with them. (dpa)