The Alchemist (novel)

 An Andalusian shepherd boy known as Santiago dreams of a treasure while in a ruined church. He seeks out a Gypsy fortune-teller on the meaning of his recurring dream. It is perceived by the woman as a prophecy. She promises the boy that he'll find a treasure at the pyramids of Egypt. Santiago then meets Melchizedek, an old king, or the King of Salem. He demands Melchizedek to buy Santiago's sheep to enable him to travel to Egypt to fulfill his "Personal Legend". When he arrives in Africa, a man who claims to be able to transport Santiago to the pyramids instead is able to take away the money he made from his flock. Santiago is made to become a crystal merchant to make enough money to reach the pyramids. While on his journey, he meets an Englishman who came seeking an alchemist. He continues his travels with his new companion. Santiago falls in love with Fatima, an Arabian girl, once they arrive at an oasis. He proposes to marry her. He promises her that she will be married to him once he has completed his travels. Frustrated at first, it is later discovered that true love does not end, nor should one surrender the path to which it leads in the sense that doing so robs it of truth.The Pyramids of GizaThe boy is then introduced to an alchemist who is wise, who teaches him to recognize the true person he is. Together, they risk an adventure through the land of conflicting tribes, and Santiago is required to prove his connection to the "Soul of the World' by turning himself into a dust cloud before he is permitted to proceed.When when he arrives at the pyramids and starts digging, he's robbed by thieves, they ask him what he's looking for. He replies that a dream had brought him to a treasure buried. The thieves are furious, and the leader remarks about a dream he was having about finding treasure beneath an old tree that was a ruinous church. Santiago realises that the treasure he was seeking was located in the place the dream he was having originally occurred to him. Coelho wrote The Alchemist in only two weeks in 1987. He explained that he could write at this pace because the novel was "already written in his soul The book's main theme is about finding one's destiny but as per The New York Times, The Alchemist is "more self-help than literature". [4] Santiago was given the suggestion that "whenever you really want things to occur, the whole of creation will conspire to bring it about." That is at the heart of the novel's philosophy and a theme which is evident throughout. Rocco was the first publisher to publish The Alchemist. After a year the publisher decided to transfer the rights back to Coelho regardless of the fact that it was selling "well". In order to "heal" himself from the setback, Coelho decided to go away from Rio de Janeiro with his wife and spent 40 days in the Mojave Desert. After returning from the excursion, Coelho realized he needed to keep fighting[7] and began calling on the doors. The story is inspired by an international folktale kind of tale that is identified as number. 1645 ("The Treasure at Home") is a traditional tale that is part of the Aarne Thompson-Uther Index. It states that a man dream of finding treasure under the bridge when he goes to a distant location. Finding no treasure, he relays the man about his dream who says that he too was dreaming of treasure at some place. He describes the place where he lived, which was the residence of the man who dreamed first. When the man returns home, he finds the treasure. "[8] A poem by Rumi the 13th century Persian poet, is the earliest known instance of this type of tale. A Arabic folktales collection includes an adaptation of the story.