The Alchemist

The Alchemist is the soul inspiring story of a courageous Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago. We follow him through the desert as he sets out to find his treasure amongst the Egyptian pyramids. Driven by his prophetic dreams, Santiago gains knowledge far greater than any treasure he could ever discover... lessons in loss, love, "the Soul of the World," and his own "Personal Legend," his soul's true purpose.

Repeated throughout this book is the statement, "When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person realize his dream." It also states that true love won't stop your Personal Legend, and if it does, it is not true love after all.

Paulo Coelho stated that he wrote The Alchemist in only two weeks during 1987, because it was "already written in [his] soul," and I'm led to believe that maybe this story, in some way, is something we all share. Maybe the dreams, love, and perseverance within this book's pages are an expression of something that lies within us all; our connection to the Soul of the World.

It's interesting that I happened to have read The Alchemist at the same time I was reading the autobiography of singer, songwriter, and musician, Billy Idol.

Santiago is told, "Everyone, when they are young, knows what their Personal Legend is," and it seems that Idol too identified his own Personal Legend as a boy, and has worked throughout his life, in spite of discouragement and pain, to achieve it. As things seem to have always fallen in place for Idol, at just the right time, it would seem that he too has received a little help from a conspiring universe that recognized his passion and talent.

I will be reviewing Billy Idol's autobiography, Dancing with Myself soon.