Brazilian speaking. Coelho is considered one of our finest songwriters of all time. He sells a lot, but is considered low literature over here. The Alchemist is basically a bunch of mystical and self help cliches.

Paulo Coelho likes to propagate the notion that he posses actual magical powers. When a news crew went to his house, he refused to unsheathe a sword because it might unleash catastrophic events.

That said, I read The Alchemist when I was a teenager and found it pretty fun. As a adult, I would never would never take him seriously.