Aleph (novel)

Aleph is a 2011 novel by the Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho. It is the fourteenth major book by Coelho, and touches on the theme of spirituality. Aleph was written in Coelho's native language, Portuguese. Under the sentence "Some books are read. Aleph is lived", the book is an autobiographical account written in a novel format. Upon release it became a bestselling novel in Brazil.

Plot

When the writer feels that his attempts are not properly being requited with the results he desired, he starts to have doubts about the path he is following and about the things he is doing. Then, as his master J. says, he starts trying to become the "King of [his] Kingdom".^[1] The master J. tells him that what the writer is feeling is what he himself had felt some years back. That way, the writer is convinced that what he is in is a phase he cannot withdraw himself from and then he goes to travel. The writer persuades his agent, and then makes out a way to visit Russia for his tour, on the pretext of signing books and holding various programmes for the promotion of his books in the northern Eurasian parts. In Russia, he comes across a girl, Hilal, who happens to be a Turk. She talks about her dream about a friend with a light and so does the story develops. Hilal also joins the writer in his carriage in the train. Then, in a vestibule, the two of them, the writer and Hilal see Aleph, which is defined as "a point where everything, the whole universe is contained".^[2]

Editions

Aleph has sold its rights to more than 40 languages: Albanian, Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Complex), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malayalam, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish.

References