WORLD LITERATURE TODAY • APRIL–JUNE 2003 • 57
WHEN I FIRST READ about Paulo Coelho’s confirmation as the newest member of the prestigious
Academia Brasileira de Letras (ABL), I immediately contacted him, first to congratulate him for the outstanding...
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WORLD LITERATURE TODAY • APRIL–JUNE 2003 • 57
WHEN I FIRST READ about Paulo Coelho’s confirmation as the newest member of the prestigious
Academia Brasileira de Letras (ABL), I immediately contacted him, first to congratulate him for the outstanding
achievement, and then to extend an invitation to do a short
interview for WLT, which he graciously accepted.
For me in
particular, it was a great pleasure to hear about his confirmation, mainly because I had received some severe criticism
from more conservative critics for including his work The
Alchemist in a recent top-ten list of Brazilian novels for the past
twenty years (see WLT 75:3–4, pp.
89–91).
Some of his
answers—transcribed in the interview below, which I have
translated—will address this issue of prejudice with his own
personal insight.
PAULO COELHO (b.
1947, Rio de Janeiro) is not only one of the
most widely read but also most influential writers in the
world today, not only in my opinion but also in the opinion of
numerou
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