The Alchemist - Book Summary
by Paulo Coelho
‘I love The Alchemist.’
– Oprah Winfrey
"One of my favourite books is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, and I just believe that…I can create whatever I want to create. If I can put my head on it right, study it, learn the patterns…I feel very strongly that we are who we choose to be."
– Will Smith
"When you really want something, the whole universe conspires in helping you to achieve it."
The Alchemist is a novel that has a timeless mystical quality, and is a motivation to follow your dreams.
The book presents a Spanish boy named Santiago and, while he was in a ruined church he dreams of a treasure. Santiago talks to a gipsy fortune-teller about the meaning of the dream and she tells him that he will discover a treasure at the Egyptian pyramids.
After Santiago sets out, he meets the king of Salem, who tells him to sell his sheep and to travel to Egypt and accomplish his 'Personal Legend'. Early on his arrival in Africa, he gets robbed by a man who claims to take him to the pyramids. Now Santiago is forced to work for a crystal merchant to earn enough to get to the pyramids.
Once he has some money he starts to continue his journey. He meets an Englishman who tells him of an alchemist that can turn lead into gold. Santiago continues the journey with his new companion, the Englishman. At one point, Santiago meets and falls in love with an Arabian girl named Fatima, to whom he proposes marriage, but she promises to marry him only after he completes his journey.
The boy continues his journey and encounters a wise alchemist, who teaches him to realize his true self. When he gets to Egypt, he begins digging for his treasure only to be immediately beaten and robbed again. One of the robbers tells him of his own dream in which he would find treasure under a tree in an abandoned church in Spain.
Santiago realises this omen and he returns to Spain, where he finds the treasure and goes to Fatima after that.
The possibility of creating a dream makes life more interesting.
Note: Some pieces of information are left out of the book.
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