The Alchemist

　　"My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer," the boy toldthe alchemist one night as they looked up at the moonless sky."Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than thesuffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goesin search of its dreams."

　　Every few decades a book is published that changes the livesof its readers forever. "The Alchemist" is such a book. With over amillion and a half copies sold around the world, "The Alchemist"has already established itself as a modern classic, universallyadmired. Paulo Coelho's charming fable, now available in Englishfor the first time, will enchant and inspire an even wider audienceof readers for generations to come.

　　"The Alchemist" is the magical story of Santiago, anAndalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldlytreasure as extravagant as any ever found. From his home in Spainhe journeys to the markets of Tangiers and across the Egyptiandesert to a fateful encounter with the alchemist.

　　The story of the treasures Santiago finds along the wayteaches us, as only a few stories have done, about the essentialwisdom of listening to our hearts, learning to read the omensstrewn along life's path, and, above all, following our dreams.