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The Devil and Miss Prym
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In this stunning new novel, Paulo Coelho dramatizes the struggle with every soul between light and darkness, and its relevance to our everyday struggles: to dare to follow our dreams, to have the courage to be different and to master the fear that prevents us from truly living.
Paulo Coelho, born in Rio de Janeiro in 1947, is one of the bestselling and most influential authors in the world. The Alchemist, The Pilgrimage, The Valkyries, Brida, Veronika Decides to Die, Eleven Minutes, The Zahir, The Witch of Portobello, and The Winner Stands Alone, among others, have sold 115 million copies in more than 160 countries.
Paulo Coelho nació en Brasil en 1947 y es uno de los autores con más influencia de hoy día. Conocido mundialmente por el bestseller internacional El Alquimista, Coelho ha vendido más de 100 millones de libros en todo el mundo, los cuales han sido traducidos a 68 idiomas y publicados en 150 países. Paulo Coelho escribe una columna semanal que se publica en los periódicos más importantes del mundo.
As a youth, Coelho was expected to follow in the footsteps of his father, a professional engineer. When he rebelled, expressing his intentions to become a writer, his parents had him committed to a psychiatric hospital where he was subjected to electro-shock therapy. He left home to join the 1970s countercultural revolution, experimenting with drugs, dabbling in black magic, and getting involved in Brazil's bohemian art and music scene. He teamed with rock musician Raul Seixas for an extremely successful songwriting partnership that changed the face of Brazilian pop -- and put a lot of money in Coelho's pockets. He also joined an anti-capitalist organization called the Alternative Society which attracted the attention of Brazil's military dictatorship. Marked down as a subversive, he was imprisoned and tortured.
Amazingly, Coelho survived these horrific experiences. He left the hippie lifestyle behind, went to work in the record industry, and began to write, but without much success. Then, in the mid-1980s, during a trip to Europe, he met a man, an unnamed mentor he refers to only as "J," who inducted him into Regnum Agnus Mundi, a secret society that blends Catholicism with a sort of New Age mysticism. At J's urging, Coelho journeyed across el Camino de Santiago, the legendary Spanish road traversed by pilgrims since the Middle Ages. He chronicled this life-changing, 500-mile journey -- the culmination of decades of soul-searching -- in The Pilgrimage, published in 1987.
The following year, Coelho wrote The Alchemist, the inspirational fable for which he is best known. The first edition sold so poorly the publisher decided not to reprint it. Undaunted, Coelho moved to a larger publishing house that seemed more interested in his work. When his third novel (1990's Brida) proved successful, the resulting media buzz carried The Alchemist all the way to the top of the charts. Released in the U.S. by HarperCollins in 1993, The Alchemist became a word-of-mouth sensation, turning Coelho into a cult hero.
Since then, he has gone on to create his own distinct literary brand -- an amalgam of allegory and self-help filled with spiritual themes and symbols. In his novels, memoirs, and aphoristic nonfiction, he returns time and again to the concepts of quest and transformation and has often said that writing has helped connect him to his soul. While his books have not always been reviewed favorably and have often become the subject of strong cultural and philosophical debate, there is no doubt that this self-described "pilgrim writer" has struck a chord in readers everywhere. In the 2009 edition of the Guiness Book of World Records, Coelho was named the most translated living author -- with William Shakespeare the most translated of all time!
Before become a bestselling novelist, Coelho was a writer of a different sort. He co-wrote more than 60 songs with Brazilian musician Raul Seixas.
Coelho is the founder of the Paulo Coelho Institute, a non-profit organization funded by his royalties that raises money for underprivileged children and the elderly in his homeland of Brazil.
In our interview with Coelho, he shared some fascinating facts about himself:
"I have been practicing archery for a long time; a bow and arrow helps me to unwind."
"In writing, I apply my feminine side and respect the mystery involved in creation."
"I love almost everything about my work, except conferences. I am too shy in front of an audience. But I love signings and having eye contact with a reader who already knows my soul."
Chapter One
For almost fifteen years, old Berta had spent every day sitting outside her front door. The people of Viscos knew that this was normal behavior amongst old people: they sit dreaming of the past and of their youth; they look out at a world in which they no longer play a part and try to find something to talk to the neighbors about.
Berta, however, had a reason for being there. And that morning her waiting came to an end when she saw the stranger climbing the steep hill up to the village, heading for its one hotel. He did not look as she had so often imagined he would: his clothes were shabby, he wore his hair unfashionably long, he was unshaven.
And he was accompanied by the Devil.
"My husband's right," she said to herself. "If I hadn't been here, no one would have noticed."
She was hopeless at telling people's ages and put the man's somewhere between forty and fifty. "A youngster," she thought, using a scale of values that only old people understand. She wondered how long he would be staying, but reached no conclusion; it might be only a short time, since all he had with him was a small rucksack. He would probably just stay one night before moving on to a fate about whichshe knew nothing and cared even less.
Even so, all the years she had spent sitting by her front door waiting for his arrival had not been in vain, because they had taught her the beauty of the mountains, something she had never really noticed before, simply because she had been born in that place and had always tended to take the landscape for granted.
As expected, the stranger went into the hotel. Berta wondered if she should go and warn the priest about this undesirable visitor, but she knew he wouldn't listen to her, dismissing the matter as the kind of thing old people like to worry about.
So now she just had to wait and see what happened. It doesn't take a devil much time to bring about destruction; they are like storms, hurricanes or avalanches, which, in a few short hours, can destroy trees planted two hundred years before. Suddenly, Berta realized that the mere fact that Evil had just arrived in Viscos did not change anything: devils come and go all the time without necessarily affecting anything by their presence. They are constantly abroad in the world, sometimes simply to find out what's going on, at others to put some soul or other to the test. But they are fickle creatures, and there is no logic in their choice of target, being drawn merely by the pleasure of a battle worth fighting. Berta concluded that there was nothing sufficiently interesting or special about Viscos to attract the attention of anyone for more than a day, let alone someone as important and busy as a messenger from the dark.
She tried to turn her mind to something else, but she couldn't get the image of the stranger out of her head. The sky, which had been clear and bright up until then, suddenly clouded over.
"That's normal, it always happens at this time of year," she thought. It was simply a coincidence and had nothing to do with the stranger's arrival.
Then, in the distance, she heard a clap of thunder, followed by another three. On the one hand, this simply meant that rain was on the way; on the other, if the old superstitions of the village were to be believed, the sound could be interpreted as the voice of an angry God, protesting that mankind had grown indifferent to His presence.
"Perhaps I should do something. After all, what I was waiting for has finally happened."
She sat for a few minutes, paying close attention to everything going on around her; the clouds had continued to gather above the village, but she heard no other sounds. As a good ex-Catholic, she put no store by traditions and superstitions, especially those of Viscos, which had their roots in the ancient Celtic civilization that once existed in the place.
"A thunderclap is an entirely natural phenomenon. If God wanted to talk to man, he wouldn't use such roundabout methods."
She had just thought this when she again heard a peal of thunder accompanied by a flash of lightning -- a lot closer this time. Berta got to her feet, picked up her chair and went into her house before the rain started; but this time she felt her heart contract with an indefinable fear.
"What should I do?"
Again she wished that the stranger would simply leave at once; she was too old to help herself or her village, far less assist Almighty God, who, if He needed any help, would surely have chosen someone younger. This was all just some insane dream; her husband clearly had nothing better to do than to invent ways of helping her pass the time.
But of one thing she was sure, she had seen the Devil.
In the flesh and dressed as a pilgrim.
Excerpted from The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho Copyright © 2007 by Paulo Coelho. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Anonymous
Posted January 13, 2012
A little more thrilling than his other novels, this one is a little darker but still shares the same essence of his writings.
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Posted August 14, 2011
Explores the deepest foundations of the human spirit.
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Posted March 3, 2011
The Devil and Miss Prym is written international best selling Brazilian author Paulo Coelho. Paulo Coelho is also author of the world known book, the Alchemist. This book is very analytic and philosophical. Symbolism is a major component. This novel examines the question, "are people bad?" This book develops deeply around the themes of fear, temptation, and good and evil. Set in a small town of the name Visco full of greed and selfishness, a young and desperate woman searching for a meaning is tempted by a man living in pain claiming to have the devil within him. She must take her ordinary life and choose between good and evil, listening to nature and also realizing she is responsible for her actions. Personally I believe that this book is amazing. It explores humans and their capacity to judge. Is there really and evil or is it just miss judgment? What makes a person capable of falling into temptation? What causes a person to be so ambitious and do actions that are not well accepted? Paulo Coelho takes all these questions and in the most simple manner clearly states his interpretations. The book leaves you stunned and like my friend would say, "it blows your mind!!!" This book focuses on a young woman by the name of Chantal Prym. She lives in a small town this is very basic ordinarily, all in all boring. She wants to leave this life and get out of the town to lead a life of excitement. Old Berta is the widow of the town who on her porch daily talks to her dead husband. Every day she awaits the arrival of the Devil as her husband had predicted. A stranger show up to the town intending to stay a week, and is first met by Old Berta. He encounters Miss Prym and listen her how that he as 11 golden bars hidden in the woods. The gold could belong to the mellow mediocre town under one condition that the stranger sets. Chantal discovers what she and her town are cable of in order to get the ticket that could get them out of their misery. Miss Prym discovers the good and evil that is in her everyday life. She must make a decision while the stranger considers what he calls the evil humanity and. This book will keep you hooked form start to end. What is that condition and what does it represent? To what extreme does the town go to? What happens to Old Berta and who's this stranger? What is his painful past about? What has caused him to be the man he has turned into? And most importantly what path does Miss Prym choose? All these questions can be answered through the deep reading of The Devil and Miss Prym.
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Posted August 19, 2008
This was an easy book to read. The story of a man haunted by ghosts from his past is looking for proof that people are more evil than good. He has brought with him eleven bars of gold. He traps a young girl into his scheme to see if this small poor village can be made to murder one of it's members to obtain the gold which it needs. The girl, Chantal Prym, needs the gold to leave the village. She goes through a lot of soul searching in order to get the village to consider the bargain. The internal fight that the stranger and the young woman go through is interesting. However, I failed to understand the end of the bargain. It made no sense to me. I hope my book discussion group can enlighten me!
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Posted July 21, 2006
Paulo Coelho has done it again. One of the good things I like about Coelho is that he keeps his stories simple, but make all of them captivating. The Devil and Miss Prym is no exception. I actually enjoyed reading this more than the Alchemist, which was his most popular book. This book teaches the true value of changing for one's sake. The value of starting over. The value of living a new life.
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Posted July 5, 2006
Like all of Paulo Coelho's book there is a message that transcends ethnic race and really cuts to the core of humanity. Many fault him for his simplistic writing, but in a world saturated with lengthy words that serve as a placebo to peoples ears and hearts, simplicity is what we need. It reminds me of a time before the written word, where oral traditions were prevalent. It also reminds me of parables that I loved growing up as a child.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.The struggle between good and evil is a topic that has occupied the minds of men throughout the ages. Poems, stories, and novels have been written with this contest as its theme, yet few I wager have been penned as compellingly as today's tale by Paulo Coelho. This author who has won a number of prestigious awards, confines his narrative to a one week period and follows what he has been quoted as believing - that one man's life is every man's. A stranger arrives in the secluded mountain village of Viscos. This is the place that Chantal Prym would give anything to escape, and she is one of the first to speak with the newcomer. He is carrying 11 gold bars and a notebook. He explains that he is seeking help in answering an important question - are people basically good or are they evil? It is the stranger's belief that under certain circumstances every human being would, indeed, do something evil. Were Chantal to prove this to be true she could escape the confines of Viscos and begin a new life. However, committing such an act would be against all she believes to be right and true. What will her choice be and how does this challenge affect the other villagers? Tony nominee and Outer Critics Circle Award winner Linda Emond gives a breathtaking voice performance as Coelho's thought provoking story is revealed. Few who hear it will soon forget it.
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Overview
A community devoured by greed, cowardice and fear. A man persecuted by the ghosts of his painful past. A young woman searching for happiness. In one eventful week, each of them will face questions of life, death and power, and each of them will have to choose their own path. Will they choose good or evil?In this stunning new novel, Paulo Coelho dramatizes the struggle with every soul between light and darkness, and its relevance to our everyday struggles: to dare to follow our dreams, to have the courage to be different and to master the fear that prevents us from truly living.