Originally published in Portuguese in 1988, Paulo Coelho's fable about following your dreams immediately became a bestseller. When, in 1993, it was translated into English, it had amazing success as well. So when I was in the bookstore browsing through titles, I came across a 10 th Anniversary Edition of the book. Not every book is important enough to have a noticed 10 th Anniversary, so I added it to The List.

The Alchemist tells the story of a Spanish boy, named Santiago , with a strong dose of independence. When he was young, he was put in school to become a priest, but soon realized that staying in the same town was not for him. He needed adventure and a change of scenery to thrive off of. When Santiago told his father about his need for travel, he didn't fight him. Instead he gave him enough money to buy a flock of sheep and wander the Andalusian countryside.

As he is wandering with his sheep, he has the same dream twice. The dream is set in a Egypt , where Santiago can see the Pyramids and a girl tells him about treasure hidden there. But, just when the location is about to be revealed to him, he wakes up. After the second time he experiences the dream, he is about to enter a town where he is sure he can find someone to interpret his dream for him. Santiago finds a gypsy in the town and all she can tell him is that there is a treasure awaiting him in Egypt near the Pyramids. However, even though she provided no new information, she says she would like 10% of his treasure when he finds it.

Santiago leaves the gypsy, somewhat discouraged. He knows that Egypt is very far away and that, if he were to pursue his treasure, he would have to give up his comfortable life of shepherding. He tries to put away the thought of the dream while reading, but an old Arab man becomes too insistent and forces conversation on him. He claims to be a king of a country that Santiago has never heard of. He knows all about the dream and, it seems, everyone around him. He encourages the boy to go in search of this treasure because it is his destiny. He then requests one tenth of the boy's sheep for being there to encourage him.

After meeting with the king, Santiago is even more confused than before, but he feels that his heart wants him to go chase after this dream. The next day, the boy sells all but one tenth of his sheep, providing him with enough money to at least get to Africa and be there for a while. He meets the king and gives him the other one tenth of the sheep. In exchange, the king gives him two stones- one black and the other white. They are called Urim and Thummim. They should help him make decisions, the white meaning yes, the black meaning no. He tells the boy to watch out for the omens and learn to read them and then sends Santiago off to Africa .

After his arrival in Africa , he goes to a bar to get something to drink where he meets a boy about his age. Because Santiago has no idea how to get to Egypt or exactly how far away it is, he begins to speak with the other boy, who conveniently knows Spanish. The other boy tells him that they need to buy two camels to get there asks Santiago how much money he has. He shows the other boy and blindly gives it to him. He tries to follow him to buy the camels, but as they are going through a marketplace, Santiago loses sight of the other boy and shortly after realizes that he will not be coming back to find him. He now has no money left and is in a foreign land where people speak a foreign language.

In the end, The Alchemist proves to be a very satisfying read. It only took me about four hours to read so it certainly is not long. I can see now why they are re-printing this book. It is one of those books that leave you thinking about where you hope to go and what you want to do. In the end, it is up to you, the reader, to decide what you want to do with you life.

I give it a 4/5 just because some of the writing could have been better.

Discuss this review here