The Witch of Portobello

Who is this mysterious woman called Athena? The orphan abandoned by her gypsy mother in Transylvania. The child taken to Beirut by her adoptive parents. The clerk working in a large bank in London. The successful real estate agent in Dubai. The priestess of Portobello Road.

“I wanted to explore the feminine side of divinity, I wanted to plunge into the heart of the Great Mother. I felt the need to question why society had tried to lock away the feminine side of God. But why explore the feminine side of God? People sometimes ask me if I believe in witches, to which I always answer: I do. Unfortunately the word “witch” still has many bad connotations. To me, a witch is a woman who is capable of letting her intuition guide her actions, one who communes with her environment, who isn’t afraid of facing challenges. I wanted to talk about the prejudice that modern witches face in modern society” - Paulo Coelho

COVERS
EDITIONS
REVIEWS
FILM PROJECT
PAULO COELHO BLOG Find out more about the book at www.paulocoelhoblog.com

« I was used and manipulated by Athena, she did not take my feelings into account. […] She was my master, in charge of passing on the sacred mysteries, of awakening the unknown force that we all possess. Whenever we venture into this unknown sea, we blindly believe in those who guide us, thinking that they know more than us. »
ANDREA MC CAIN, STAGE ACTRESS

« Athena’s great problem was that she was a woman of the twenty-second century living in the twenty-first, and making no secret of the fact either. Did she pay a price? She certainly did. But she would have paid a still higher price if she’d repressed her exuberant self. She would be bitter, frustrated, always worried about “what others will think”, always saying “let me solve these matters, I will devote to my dream later”, constantly complaining of “the ideal conditions that never occur”. »
EDDA, PRIESTESS

« “People create their own reality and then become their victim. Athena rebelled against this and paid a very high price”.»
HERON RYAN, JOURNALIST.