The Alchemist (novel)

 Santiago Santiago Andalusian shepherd boy has dreams of discovering a treasure inside an old church. A Gypsy fortune-teller explains the significance of his dream that keeps coming back to him. The woman interprets it as a prophecy saying to the boy that he will discover a treasure at the Egyptian pyramids.After Santiago sets out to meet an old king Melchizedek, or the King of Salem, who tells him to let his sheep go to travel to Egypt and fulfill his "Personal Legend'. Early on his arrival in Africa an African man claims to be able to transport Santiago to the pyramids takes away the money he made from his flock. Santiago is forced to be a crystal trader in order to earn enough money get to the pyramids Along the way, he encounters an Englishman who has come to search for an alchemist. The two continue their travels with his new companion. Santiago falls in love with Fatima, an Arabian girl, after they come across an oasis. He proposes to her marriage. He promises her that she will be married to him once he has completed his quest. He is initially frustrated, but soon realizes that true love does not stop or require the sacrifice of one's life for it. The Pyramids of GizaThe boy meets an alchemist with wisdom who assists him in discovering his true self. They embark on a dangerous journey through the territory of tribal wars. Santiago must show his unity with the "Soul of the World' when the boy transforms into a cloud of dust to search for treasure. The thieves laugh and the leader relates the dream he had regarding treasure hidden under a tree in a ruined church. Santiago realises that the treasure Santiago sought was actually where the dream he was chasing began. Coelho wrote The Alchemist in just two weeks in 1987. He explained that he was able write at such a speed because the story was "already written in his heart". The main idea of the book is finding one's purpose but according to The New York Times, The Alchemist is "more self-help than literature". 4. The advice given to Santiago to "when you truly would like something to happen, the entire universe will cooperate to ensure that your wish comes true" is the core of the book's premise and a theme that is played throughout it.The Alchemist was first released by Rocco which is a small Brazilian publishing company. After a year the publisher decided to return the rights to Coelho even though the book had been selling "well". Coelho was required to "heal" from the loss and set off for Rio de Janeiro to spend 40 days in the Mojave Desert with his wife. Returning from the excursion, Coelho decided he had to continue fighting and became "so convinced it was a fantastic book that he started knocking on doors. The story is built on a folktale of international kind of tale that is identified as number. 1645 ("The Treasure at Home") in the Aarne Thompson-Uther Index of Folktales "A man dreams that if he travels to the city of a far away, he'll find treasure on a specific bridge. In the absence of treasure, he relays his dream to a man who claims that he too had a dreamed of finding treasure at a the same location. He describes the location, which is the man's first home. The treasure is discovered by the second man when the latter returns home. "[8] The earliest known version of this tale type is a poem by 13th century Persian poet Rumi and a variation of the tale is included in the One Thousand and One Nights collection of Arabic folktales