The Alchemist

Santiago is a young shepherd in Andalusia, in the south of Spain. He has a dream, twice, about a hidden treasure near the Pyramids of Egypt. He sells his sheep and sets out to find it.

A gentle, beautiful and very quotable fable about following your dream, held back by preachy speeches and a journey that is a little too easy. Three and a half out of five. Read it if: you want a short, hopeful book about courage and purpose; you like parables and fables; you want an easy book to get back into reading. Skip it if: you dislike self-help language; you want complex, realistic characters; you need plots with real friction. Review: The Alchemist →

Our ending explained covers the final chapters in full, with spoilers. The Alchemist ending explained: the Pyramids, the refugees' dream, the sycamore in Spain and what the treasure really means. Full spoilers. Ending explained: The Alchemist →

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse, Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach, The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. Books like it: The Alchemist →

It is the book's name for the one thing you have always wanted to do with your life. The king Melchizedek tells Santiago that most people give theirs up because it seems impossible.

It is a short, hopeful fable that many readers love, and others find preachy. The reviewer gives it three and a half out of five. That is an opinion, not an official rating.

Paulo Coelho first published it in Portuguese in 1988. It has since been translated into dozens of languages.