Review of The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

“Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.” ― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars.

Well, for me “The Alchemist” is that book for me. After my Papa died, I was broken and depressed to pieces. My sister lent this book from her university library. Thanks to the translator that I got to read this wonderful masterpiece. I read it twice when I read it for the first time. On my following birthday, my sister gifted me this book. It is still now one of my most precious possessions. It was like an old friend telling me that the secret to life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.

Some lines from this book stay with me forever like
1.“Everyone believes the world’s greatest lie…” says the mysterious old man.
“What is the world’s greatest lie?” the little boy asks.
The old man replies, “It’s this: that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what’s happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That’s the world’s greatest lie.”
2. “The secret is here in the present. If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it. And, if you improve on the present, what comes later will also be better.”

                                                           
3. “When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream.”
4. “There are only that moment and the incredible certainty that everything under the sun has been written by one hand only. It is the hand that evokes love and creates a twin soul for every person in the world. Without such love, one’s dreams would have no meaning.”
5. “Because, wherever your heart is, that is where you´ll find your treasure”
6. “You must understand that love never keeps a man from pursuing his destiny. If he abandons that pursuit, it’s because it wasn’t true love… the love that speaks the Language of the World.”
7.“It’s not what enters men’s mouths that’s evil. It’s what comes out of their mouths that is.”
8.“He learned the most important part of the language that all the world spoke—the language that everyone on earth was capable of understanding in their heart. It was love.”