NAME: Paolo Coelho

JOB: Author

PLACE OF BIRTH: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

BIRTH DATE: August 20, 1946 (Age: 66)

ZODIAC SIGN: Leo

Summery:
Paolo Coelho was born in Rio de Janeiro,Brazil, on August 20, 1946. He was a mutinous teenager .His parents hospitalized him in a mental refuge three times.He had a spiritual awakening in Spain in 36 years old .Coelho in his first book, The Pilgrimage,wrote about it. The Alchemist,his second book made him famous.  35 million copies has been sold and now he writes about one book every two years.

Early Life:
Coelho studied at Jesuit schools and grew up in a Catholic family. He found soon that he liked to be a writer but his parents were disagreed, who thought it has no future in Brazil. Coelho's mutinous youth motivated his parents to hospitalize him in a mental refuge three times when he was 17. Coelho said "I have forgiven ,it happens with love, all the time - when you have this love towards someone else, but you want this person to change, to be like you. And then love can be very destructive."

Finally he went outside of institutional care and registered in law school. In the 1970s ,he become involve in the "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll" of hippie life . By writing song lyrics for Brazilian musicians,he protested the country's military rule.  Because of his political activism,he was detained three times and suffered in prison.

Coelho's first book :The Pilgrimage
After experiencing  several jobs, Coelho decided to change  his life's way while visiting Spain  at the age of 36 in 1986 . Coelho  walked  along the Road to Santiago de Compostela, a site of Catholic pilgrimage ,more than 500 miles  .Walking in this road  and the spiritual experience  inspired him to write The Pilgrimage. He left  his other occupations and dedicated himself full-time to writing.

Coelho's most famous book : The Alchemist
 Coelho wrote his most famous book, The Alchemist,in 1987, during  of one two-week squirt of creativity. The metaphorical novel was about an Andalusian shepherd boy who goes after a spiritual powerful journey that he learns to speak the "Language of the World" ,so gets his heart's wish. The book didn't get famous at first, until a French-language translation set it suddenly in the  bestseller lists in France in the early 1990s. New translations attracted attentions , and soon The Alchemist became well known .By Coelho's count ,The book has sold nearly 35 million copies, and is the most translated book in the world  now.

After The Alchemist, Coelho has written a new book almost  about one every two years. In a quite strange  scheduling ceremonial, he permits himself to start the writing  of a new book if he finds a white feather in the January of a strange year! The more strange is , it sounds to be working! In at least 59 languages more than 65 million copies of his 26 books have sold . 

Personal Life
Coelho's fans love his books.They know them inspiring that helps them to change their lives. His critics reject his writing as New Age nonsense, encouraging a uncertain spirituality without  any  exactness. Coelho doesn't know himself  self-help writer , "I am not a self-help writer; I am a self-problem writer" . He rejects somethings that critics say. He says:"When I write a book I write a book for myself; the reaction is up to the reader.It's not my business whether people like or dislike it."

Coelho  and  his wife, the artist Christina Oiticica have been married  since 1980. Half the year,they spends in Rio de Janeiro and the remain half in a country house in the Pyrenees Mountains of France .Coelho set up  the Paulo Coelho Institute in 1996 , which  supports  children and the elderly. He goes up writing...