A review of
                The Alchemist by, Paulo Coelho

   Recently, I read a fiction book called The Alchemist. The book starts out by introducing the main character who is a young, Andalusian shepherd named Santiago. It is night time so Santiago spends the night in an abandoned church with an old sycamore tree growing inside of the church. That night he has a recurring dream about him going to the Egyptian pyramids and finding treasure. The next day a man who claims to be a king tells Santiago that he must find the treasure because it is his personal legend which is the only thing he is obligated to do in life. The man also says, “‘.....and when you want something all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it.’”(page 22) After that, the boy (Santiago) sells his herd of sheep and heads to Africa (he knows that the pyramids are in Africa). In Africa the boy gets robbed before getting a job at a crystal shop until he finally  starts travelling in a caravan towards the pyramids. The caravan stops at an oasis where the boy falls in love with a girl named Fatima and also meets an alchemist, which is someone who speaks the language of the universe. The alchemist helps the boy finally reach the pyramids. By the time the boy reaches the pyramids he has learned the language of the universe and his heart told him that the place where his tears fall would be where his treasure is. So the boy begins to dig for many unsuccessful hours in the spot where he had wept until two figures begin to approach him.

   I believe that the theme of the novel is that sometimes the journey is more important than the destination. I believe that is the theme because on page 160 it says “The boy told himself that, on the way toward realizing his own Personal Legend, he had learned all he needed to know, and had experienced everything he might have dreamed of.” As you can see this shows the theme because it says that if  the boy had not been on the journey he would have not have learned and experienced as many things as he had. I believe that  the authors style is in between relaxed and average. I believe this because sometimes I would feel like the author would use uncommon words like on page 158 when it uses  the word “centurion”.

     Overall I enjoyed this book because of the adventurousness of it. This is shown on page  47 when it says “There was a moment of silence so profound that it seemed the city was asleep.No sound from the bazaars, no arguments among the merchants, No men climbing to the towers to chant. No hope, no adventure,no old kings or Personal Legends, and no Pyramids.” This shows that there is adventure in the book because when there was no adventure everything seemed silent. I think that people making a hard decision would enjoy this book because throughout the book it says that everything is already planned out. I feel like in this book the alchemist was in a way Santiagos Yoda because he mentored the boy in a way. All in all The Alchemist is a great story with many important lessons underneath it.