The Witch of Portobello

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The Witch of Portobello
First US Edition Published in 2007
Author	Paulo Coelho
Translator	Margaret Jull Costa
Cover artist	Jennifer Ann Daddio
Country	Brazil
Language	Portuguese (translated to English by Margaret Jull Costa)
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher	Harper Collins Publishers, 1st US Edition (2007).
Publication date	2006.
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Pages	268 p.
ISBN	ISBN 978-0-06-133880-9
Preceded by	Like the Flowing River

The Witch of Portobello is the latest work of fiction work by Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho published in 2007, about a woman born in Transylvania to a Romani mother, who is orphaned and later adopted by a wealthy Lebanese couple.

1 Style
2 Theme
3 Plot
4 The Blog
5 See also
6 References
7 Further reading

[edit] Style

It starts with the death of the main character, Athena and is told from the point of view of the people who knew her – her adoptive mother, a journalist researching vampirism, a priest, her landlord, a teacher of calligraphy and an actress. They each provide a different view of her, describing not only what they saw and experienced but adding their own impressions, interpreting her through their own beliefs and fears.

[edit] Theme

In this book, Coelho works with the re-emergence of the goddess religion, the interpretation of love, and the feminine face of God within the theme of searching for one’s true self and opening to the energies of the world.^[1]

He also alludes via a series of covert motifs to current issues, such as crime, sects, debates against Christianity and Catholicism, and even dieting, where the original themes coalesce to form the story of a woman "of the twenty-second century living in the twenty-first".

The work also expounds a selection of philosophies, which bear a certain degree of similarity to Coelho's teachings from previous novels and carry the characteristic imprint of his own ideas, as well as a citation regarding the ephemeral nature of desires, which appears in another of Coelho's novels.

Throughout the book, Coelho demonstrates what may be a new angle to his esteem of the Catholic church, his belief in which has been a significant question throughout his lifetime. By way of the characters' behaviour and speech, the writer elucidates the opinion that the Church has deviated by its stringent rules to the point where it no longer serves the teachings of Jesus Christ, or as put in His words in one of the interviews from the book: "It's a very long time since they've allowed me in there [the Church]".

[edit] Plot

As the book begins, Athena is dead. How she ended up that way creates the intrigue sustaining the book.^[2] The child, Sherine Khalil renames herself Athena. As a child, she shows a strong religious vocation and reports seeing angels and saints, which both impresses and worries her parents.

She grows into a woman in search of answers to many questions that arise within a person. She has a contented life but her mind is not at ease. So she sets out to find answers to the classical question of "Who am I?" through many experiences. In her quest, she opens her heart to intoxicating powers and becomes a controversial spiritual leader in London.

The Witch of Portobello knows all. But the best way of knowing the meaning of life is by learning from one's student. A teacher can only make us aware of our capabilities but finding the right path is up to the student. There are many ways to achieve happiness by being close to the Mother.

[edit] The Blog

The experience of making available 1/3 of the book in a blog^[3], in the words of Paulo Coelho, enabled his readers to judge by themselves the value of the book. This direct contact is, in his view, the best bet for literature.