Listen to an excerpt from 'The Alchemist', read by award-winning actor Jeremy Irons. In addition to 'The Alchemist,' Paulo Coelho has written luminous novels including 'The Pilgrimage,' 'By the River Piedra I Sat Down & Wept,' 'The Valkyries' and 'Veronika Decides to Die.' A winner of numerous literary prizes, Paulo Coelho is also a prominent speaker for humanitarian causes. 'To realize ones destiny is a persons only obligation', This quotation taken from 'The Alchemist' sums up the focus of the book. Since it was first published, 'The Alchemist' has sold more than 11 million copies worldwide and has been translated into some 41 languages. The Alchemist CD At last - the unabridged recording of this timeless bestseller that has sold millions. Paulo Coelho was born in, and still resides in, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. With more than two million copies sold around the world, The Alchemist has established itself as a modern classic, universally admired.Paulo Coelho’s masterpiece tells the magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure as extravagant as any ever. Coelho's story seems like something from the land of Scheherazade, told by one lover to the other in postcoital bliss, all with the outward simplicity yet deep resonance that is common to fables.' - Brad Hooper, Booklist The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho continues to change the lives of its readers forever.

'In his native Brazil, novelist Coelho is outsold only by Colombia's Gabriel García Márquez, and he will undoubtedly establish himself here with the publication of this, his second novel, which has been a hit all over Latin America, Europe and Asia.

The story of the treasures Santiago finds along the way is about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, learning to read the omens strewn along life's path and, above all, following our dreams. From his home in Spain he journeys to the markets of Tangiers and across the Egyptian desert to a fateful encounter with the alchemist. 'The Alchemist' is the magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure as extravagant as any ever found.

The alchemist jeremy irons