The Magician

On the morning of August 24, 1947, St. Bartholomew’s Day, a baby was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The baby had to be removed using forceps and, due to complications, he was born in a deep coma, but alive. Birth, then, was the first challenge destiny imposed on Paulo Coelho, and he had survived.

Until he became known internationally and a world bestseller, the author of “The Alchemist” and “The Pilgrimage” had to survive many other obstacles that life put in his way. A rebellious boy, while a teenager he had to face the brutality of electroshocks in the psychiatric hospital where he was interned three times by his parents. Later came the plunge into drugs, living with the esoteric underworld and Satanism, as well as physical tortures in the dungeons of Brazil’s military dictatorship. Journalist, rock star, actor, playwright and producer of television programs, he saw the whirlwind of his life end after walking the road to Santiago de Compostela. That pilgrimage was to be the source of inspiration of his first great international success, the book “The Pilgrimage”.

This is the story of the man who sells most books on the planet. An unbelievable story to be published in 2006 in a book that will reveal, in detail, the life of Paulo Coelho from his birth until today.

Since early 2005, journalist and writer Fernando Morais has been scrutinizing each square inch and each second of Paulo Coelho’s life. “I told things to Fernando that I had never said to anyone”, the author revealed. “I think not even to myself”.

Morais has had the opportunity to accompany him on a tour, and has been interviewing all those who in some way have been following his orbit from the 50s to the turn of the century. They are more than a hundred relatives, friends, ex-girlfriends, ex-wives, enemies, opponents, rivals, former employers and former employees, policemen involved in his political imprisonments, doctors who submitted him to the torment of electroshock therapy in public psychiatric hospitals, publishers, booksellers, journalists and people involved in magic and esoterism.

While digging into the life of the bestselling author, Fernando Morais discovered someone who has a story that has such a strong and dramatic human content that he concluded that “even if Paulo had never written or sold a single book, his life would give a tremendous book”.

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