Publication of The Alchemist

The Alchemist is a novel by the Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho, published in Portuguese in 1988 as O Alquimista. It follows Santiago, a young Andalusian shepherd who has a recurring dream of treasure near the Egyptian pyramids and sets out on a journey across the Mediterranean and the Sahara to find it. On the way he meets an Englishman who studies alchemy, a desert guide, and a mysterious alchemist, and learns to follow what the book calls his personal legend. The first edition sold slowly, and the publisher let it go out of print, but a new publisher brought it back and the book began to spread by word of mouth. After an English translation was released in 1993, it became an international bestseller, translated into dozens of languages.

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