FOLLOW MY DREAM – BUT WHICH ONE?
One of the recurrent themes of my books is the importance of paying the price of your dreams. But to what extent can our dreams be manipulated? For the past decades, we lived in a culture that privileged fame, money, power – and most of the people were led to believe that these were the real values that we should pursue.
We all should be a “winner”. Not in the sense of someone who finally wins what is important to his/her life. Not in the sense that happiness is the most valuable gift on Earth – and it can be attained here and now, when your work fulfills your heart. We should be a winner in the sense that the system portraits a successful person: celebrity, influence, photos in glossy magazines, behaving like the masters of the universe.
Yes, you may reach the goal society has fed you – but will you be satisfied? Will you be whole? Will you be in peace? This cycle of possession never ends – because the moment that you think that you have reached your goal another desire creeps in. And how can you find rest when it is the hunt that moves you?
While people are connected – omniscient thanks to their mobile phones and GPS – they all speak the same words, fight for the same goals, and crave the same things. How could it be otherwise? If fashion exists it is precisely because you can mold the desire of the masses – or how else could a bag, a dress impose itself as necessary?
In a world of invisible yet unsurpassable “diktats”, where a few puppeteers pull the strings of the many, instill in other people’s dreams the pursue of superficial things, there seems to be a rising feeling, a silent despair that creeps in.
Greed to have, greed to be seen, greed to prevail, even greed to kill, if you think it is for a good cause – like love, for example.
What we don’t know is that, behind the scenes, the real manipulators remain anonymous. They understand that the most effective power is the one that nobody can notice – until it is too late, and you a trapped. This book is about this trap.
Soon after I finished writing “The winner stands alone”, the financial market collapsed. Will this lead us again to the real values? I really don’t know. What I do know is that we cannot continue to allow our dreams to be manipulated like they are as for three of the four main characters in the book:
Igor, a Russian millionaire, who believes that you can kill if you have a good reason for that – like avoiding human suffering, or bringing back the attention the woman he loves.
Hamid, a fashion magnate, who started with good intentions, till he got caught by the very system he was trying to use.
Gabriela, who – like most of the people today – is convinced that fame is an end by itself, the supreme reward in a world that praises ccelebrity as the supreme achievement in life.
As I finish writing these pages, there are currently several dictators in power. One country in the Middle East has been invaded by the world’s only superpower. Support for terrorist groups is growing. Fundamentalist Christians have the ability to elect presidents. The spiritual search is manipulated by various sects each claiming to possess ‘absolute knowledge’. Whole cities are wiped from the map by Nature’s fury. According to research carried out by a reputable American intellectual, all the world’s power rests in the hands of six thousand people.
There are thousands of prisoners of conscience on every continent. Torture is once again deemed acceptable as an interrogation method. The wealthier nations are closing their borders. The poorer nations are witnessing an unprecedented exodus as their inhabitants leave in search of El Dorado. Genocide continues to be committed in at least two African countries. The economic system is showing signs of break-down, and great fortunes are beginning to collapse. Child slavery has become a constant. Hundreds of millions of people live below the poverty line. Nuclear proliferation is accepted as irreversible. New diseases emerge. The old diseases have not yet been brought under control.
But is this a portrait of the world I live in?
Of course not. When I decided to take a snapshot of my own times, I wrote this book.
So please join me in this journey into a world that is coming to an end. You will see glittery, glamour, and blood – but don’t see this book as a thriller: it is a crude portrait of where we are now. We are part of the solution, if we go back to the real values of life, being “follow your dream” the most important of all. Not the dreams of the Superclass. Not the dreams of our parents, or our partners. We should be what we always wanted to be.
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Release Dates
March: UK and Russia
April: France, Greece, Holland, USA, Hungary, India (in English), South Africa, Lebanon and Middle East
May: Australia, Iran, Bulgaria, Poland and Slovakia
Order the book
USA – UK – France – Russia – Australia – Greece – Holland – South Africa – Slovakia
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I think this is among the most important info for me. And i’m glad reading your article. But wanna remark on some general things, The web site style is great, the articles is really nice : D. Good job, cheers
Your blog post is well written and informative
Paulo,
I have a profound admiration for your books. Actually, I consider you of the greatest authors of our time. I have read most of your books (if not all) and what I love about them is the spiritual journey you develop in your stories and specially the teachings found at the end of every single book. I think the most amazing thing I realize from your works is that all of them are connected by a thin thread, complimenting one another. :)
So Its hard to say that I was really dissapointed by your last book. It took me four months to actually finish it and even though the end was the most interesting part to me (fast read), I was chocked and quite didnt like the way you finished it. Im quite sad because this style is not like yours at all. It left me nothing other than knowledge for the world of movies and glamour. I give you credit because you clearly did lots of research though. But I think the main problem was that you had too many themes going on (murder by love, gay rights, money and fame, psychos and murderers) and you couldnt quite focus and develop the book around one of them. The conclusion was too left up on the air.
I understand you probably wanted to explore new areas in writting but I hope your next works are more developed than this one. This one was a little bit hard to follow. However, I still remain faithful and inspired by your works and I’ll be waiting for the next book, “O Aleph” coming up. The plot sounds very interesting and intriguing!!
God Bless!
Luisa
it’s true , it has a continuity about it, “connected by a thin th read”.
Coelho, I have to say that your book has left me confused.
[WARNING SPOILERS: DON'T READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED THE BOOK]
First off, I don’t really understand the process by which Igor changed his motives for killing. He initially killed to send a message to his ex-wife, but later changed his mind, and still proceeded to kill 2 more people. Why?
Second, why, in the last few pages of the book is Jasmine sleeping with her photographer, who is also a woman? A cry for gay rights…doesn’t quite fit in with the subject, or does it?
Third, the book left me we a sense that your book ended in a macbre and dirty note. I felt more hate than love in the book.
hi paulo, im from philippines is there any chance to get a cop of ypur book tnx…
It is already released. Please check your local bookstore
Dear Paulo, I just finished ‘The winner stands alone’. I liked the book, but to be honest, the previous ones were more spiritual.I liked that Gabriela left the party and was not killed.
I was born in Soviet Union and many years ago I was a fashion model myself. It was a completely different world from capitalism and even I was a celebrity, I was not paid much. When in 1991 SU collapsed my 2nd husband became extremely rich, but I had a bad car accident. After I was told that I never will be aloud to have kids. I became very depressed, I had already one daughter from my 1st marriage, but my life became empty. My husband lost interest in me… He bought me villa,where I used to have party’s. I was surrounded by ‘Superclass’crowd, but I felt very empty & lonely.
It was in Latvia, Riga. Many things happen in my life, I left him and now I am in London. I have a son Oscar(3rd husband…), but my daughter has 2 kids (so, I am a granny now).
I still do not know where is the real happiness in life, my mission, my dreams…I am nearly 47, like you mentioned in the book, when you are 50, you are slower, need reading glasses etc…I can read without them, but energy is less & less…
I know that I have a special powers and was sawed by angels many times, but I do not know how to use them and I’m waiting for my teacher. At the moment it is you. THANK YOU!
PS. I was born in a very strict catholic family, but I am interested in budism, magic, destiny & unconditional love.
P.S.S. I liked the designer bag- empty, filled with paper…It is like a metaphor for today’s western society, they seem very glamorous from outside, but most of them suffers from anorexia, OCD, paranoia, addictions…They have to live under pressure at all the time, no privacy and everyone is after they money. Look at poor Michael, bless his soul, he ended with a debt, but was so,so talented…
I strongly believe, like Igor, that we all have a little (or may be big) star in the universe when we are born.
i wonder when will the arabic copy will be releazed
Hello, Mr.Coelho
I thought you were having discussion forum or something for the book Winner Stands Alone during June. But today I couldn’t find it, so I am leaving my comment here.
To be honest, I still haven’t finished the book yet, still have more than 100pages to go. But, now I read your comment about the book again, and I felt like leaving a comment.
What I really felt from both your book and your comment is that you really are a warrior. You are again taking so much ricks by sharing dark sides of our world. Actually there were times that were difficult for me to read because I did see a little bit of myself in various characters in the story (as usual). But, looking at the different point of views, that may be the whole point of this book. Well, at least for me. At this moment I have chosen to remain non-judgmental accepting how the things are in the world, not by closing my eyes like before but by opening them instead, because I feel that that’s the start. I already had a glimpse of the last part of the book, and know what Igor did, and knew what happens with Jasmine girl(my favorite charactor) from other people’s comment here. But, how I am going to react after reading this book is still unsure in me. At this moment, I am still plain non-judgmental. Maybe I stay that way for a while.
But, just by the information that you’re sharing in your comment, I sense that you’re dealing with a lot. You really are a warrior, and I do appreciate you for taking such risks always.
All the best to you.
Yoshika
Paulo,
Thank you. I’ve never heard of you until 5 minutes ago when, on twitter, I read a ‘tweet’ you posted about Neda. For whatever reason I felt compelled to click on your name and click on the link that brought me to your discription of your novel. I’m not much for fiction, but I promise to make ‘Winner’ the next book I read.
If you feel the need you can follow me on twitter ( I promise I will NOT try to sell you anything:-)
I’ve always felt that there’s so much more to life than the false trappings of fame & materialism.
Sincerely,
Neil
I have this dream to live in a beautiful, open, clutter-free house by the sea, live simply, read and write, cook wonderful meals with local produce, spending time with my husband and my cat, exercising outdoors.
In real live I run a law firm, commute 100km each day to and from work, exercise in a gym after work when I’m already tired, spend some time in the kitchen and in front of the TV with my husband and my cat before going to bed with a book. A few minutes of reading before sleep.
How to attain my dream? People need money or an income to live their dreams, even simple dreams. I we could afford it, I would leave my firm in an instant to be a stay-at-home mom with all the time in the world. To bake cupcakes; to make macaroni and cheese; to wear jeans all day.
In the meantime, I try to live simply as far as I can even in a busy world:
I never wear designer clothes, I think it is a total waste of money and an insult to all the poor people that live in my country. I drive a common Toyota. I take a packed lunch to work with healthy food: fruit, yogurt, a wholewheat sandwich. I never take work home – home is for relaxing and recharging. I make time for friends over weekends. I do pro bono legal work for people who can’t afford fees whenever I can.
But, maybe one day, I shall live simply in a house by the sea with all the time in the world.
Paulo, the book is great, especially the end, but I don’t like the way you describe Igor’s past and personality. I am from Bulgaria and here, similar to Russia, being one of the richest people also means being one of the meanest and most horrible people, and Igor is in some way brave and positive character. Anyway, I really like the book and wish you all the best.
6,000 people holding us at ransom, hey?
Greetings from Ukraine. I’ve enjoyed reading this book as all the privious ones. You’ve vivadly described the picture of modern life. You speak about glamour and power. But I still have one question. Why have you left Igor alive or have not put him in jail? After the last his murder it’s not difficult to find him. Can we call him the warrior of the Light or he has failed on his path?
Great thanks
Greetings from Turkey. Just read the first chapter and your comments. Soooo looking forward to reading your new book and keeping my inspiration alive!
Thanks for reminding us the bare basics again and again!
por favor publíquenlo en méxico, paulo coelho es sin duda mi escritor favorito y me da gusto ver como he interesado a mis amigas en conocer sus obras. y el nuevo libro q puedo decir, me encanta sin duda fascinante
Just like to say I admire your thoughts and the way you express them- – courageous is a word that comes to mind-
I completely agree with you that we are (almost) all caught up in the tidal wave of materialism that is ”life” as we know it and how far we have strayed from real meaningful living.
We often wonder if there is other life ” out there” and why there has been no contact ? Well if you looked down on earth from another place is Earth really somewhere you would really like to visit ? ….
Kind Rgds Brian
PS. You mention this in your blog…..could you help me to read more about this research- its frightening !!!!
………..According to research carried out by a reputable American intellectual, all the world’s power rests in the hands of six thousand people……………..Tks !!
Dear Paulo:
Thank you for you new book. I look forward to read it. I am a few days from having my first child, one of the most important dreams in my life that will become true. I am pretty sure that reading your new book will be a great time of reflection for me as a new mother, I will be the first source of values for my new child. I look forward to meet again with you in the universe by reading your new book.
Thank you for being a source of inspiration and dreams for others.
Karla Dougherty- Chicago-IL- USA
Dear Paulo,
I just finished reading ‘The Winner Takes It All’. It’s (again) a wonderful novel. I bought it a few days ago and read it to the end in several days.
The story is great.
Thanks,
Hi Caroline
After today, I have two weeks to sit and relax and read The Winner Stands Alone.
If I am lucky I may see my Filipino friend Anna this evening.
I picked up a copy of The Devil Wears Prada, the trashy novel by Lauren Weisberger, to pass on as holiday reading.
Good book, said a South African lady to the side of me. No responded I, it is rubbish. Better was her second novel Everyone Worth Knowing. But far, far better than either I added is The Winner Stands Alone by Paulo Coelho.
I also suggested she check out Paulo Coelho t-shirts from Mango.
hi keith!
Thanks for the visit on my blog. =)
I have a day left for me to read the book. Yipee! Extend my Hi to your friend Anna ;)
Hi Caroline
I skimmed through the book very quickly. I am saving it for when I go away next month.
Strange, I was speaking to a friend Anna from the Philippines!
Keith
Querido Paulo! Como disfruto con tus libros, soy de Argentina y me encantaria saber cuando saldría la edicion es español.
Un beso y gracias
Querido Paulo! como disfruto con tus libros, soy de Argentina y me encantaria saber cuando se publicara la edicion en castellano.
Gracias
hi Keith! thanks for the post. Really excited to read the whole book! ;)
woohh.. I can’t wait to read this new book! When will this be available in the Philippines?
A very pretentious review by Carolyn See of The Winner Stands Alone in The Washington Post last Friday (10 April 2009). Only serves to emphasise the point of the negative attitude critics have to Paulo Coelho, but then no doubt the The Washington Post does have a lucrative revenue stream from the film and fashion industry.
Contrast the pretentious rubbish in the The Washington Post with a review on Indymedia UK a few days later (14 April 2009):
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/04/427460.html
Keith
Occasionally there is a writer, a book, a novel that leads to the exposure of prevailing social conditions, that raises social awareness, that leads to social reform. Charles Dickens exposed the conditions of the Victorian underclass and this led to social reform. Upton Sinclair did the same with his exposure of the working conditions of the American working class. John Steinbeck in The Grapes of Wrath showed the impact on the mid-west of the Great Depression. Alexander Solzhenitsyn exposed the horrors of Stalinist Russia. Rachel Carson in Silent Spring showed that pesticides were killing wildlife. Naomi Klein with No Logo brought to wider public attention the sweatshop conditions that lie behind many famous brand names. More recently Marina Lewycka with humour and wit has exposed in Two Caravans the working conditions of illegal migrant workers in England and the abomination of factory farming. George Orwell in Nineteen Eighty-Four and Aldous Huxley in Brave New World foretold the future and so it has come to pass.
Has Paulo Coelho managed to do the same with his exposure of the shallow nature of celebrity and fashion? Will it cause a fundamental shift in social attitudes? Has he caught the mood of the times with the global economic collapse? Will a better society emerge?
As Paulo says: ‘We are part of the solution, if we go back to the real values of life …’
http://www.heureka.clara.net/books/the-winner-stands-alone.htm
Keith
ok seguiré mi sueño
I started to read last night The Winner Stands Alone, and I have to say it is brilliant. A damning indictment of the fashion and film industry.
http://www.heureka.clara.net/books/the-winner-stands-alone.htm
http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/7102112/
Coincidence: Published to coincide with the film version of Veronika Decides to Die?
Synchronicity: The day after I picked up a copy of The Winner Stands Alone, I turned on the radio and found myself listening on BBC Radio 4 Thinking Allowed to an excellent discussion of an exhibition illustrating throughout history status and rank, wealth, poverty and inequality through the visual arts.
I was waiting for your next book for a while now.I’m glad to read
that, “THE WINNER STANDS ALONE” is now available.
By reading in your blog the first chapter, it makes me realize that
what I think is coming to pass. I know that we will have to
go back to basics. Nature is retaliating and we are seeing that everyday, with changes everywhere. The natural disasters are part of those changes.
Thank you for the email letting me know about the book. When will it be translated to spanish???? Saludos desde Puerto Rico
firstly, i must thank you for all that i have learnt from your books. they have changed my perspective to look at everything around me. thank you very much to be a guide, a guru, an idol..
i even liked the concept of this new book and i am looking forward for its release in our book stores. i hope even this book like others gets us through the reality of life, and makes a remarkable difference in our response towards it.
I just picked up a copy in Guildford.
http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/7102112/
http://www.heureka.clara.net/surrey-hants/gu-ford.htm
Question is, do I read it now or do I resist temptation and save it for hoilday reading next month?
It is a nice sunny day. I may just go and sit in the Castle Grounds and read a little now.
Keith
wow! great news! waiting for the book @ kerala, the southern most state of india.
We all need basic food, shelter and clothing, clean water, but what do we need beyond that?
We pursue increase in GNP as though it is religious salvation. Shopping has become a leisure activity, not a walk in the park or the countryside, a trip to the theatre or art gallery or museum, but shopping. People go out and shop, not because they need something, shopping has become an end in itself. We go out and buy stuff, we bring it home where it becomes clutter, six months later it becomes trash. The Third World is exploited both for its labour and resources, the environments becomes polluted, we all work more hours than we need, in jobs we hate so that we have the money to carrying on consuming.
And does it make us happy? The answer is no.
In the 1950s it was realised that if the economy was to keep on growing, if Big Business was to keep on growing and raking in big bucks, then we all had to be conned into buying stuff we did not want or need. At the same time in the US it was realised that its citizens were a small proportion of the world population but were consuming nearly all its resources. To maintain the status quo of huge inequality, the US had to remain the dominant military force.
From the 1950s onwards, although there has been a steady growth in GNP, there has not been a steady growth in personal wellbeing.
We need to re-address our way of thinking. An economy that is fit for purpose, that is for the wellbeing of people and planet, not to the benefit of global corporations and their puppet politcians.
http://www.neweconomics.org/gen/well_being_top.aspx
Keith
Dear and Wonder-ful Paolo,
I recommended your most remarkable “Wounded by Love Agreement” to a “co-Yogini” the other day, gave The Alchemist to my nephew and now spotted “Success – the beautiful poison” as the tagline on the poster of your latest book.
Do note my blog here where I refer to that as well as a whistleblower who reduced the 6000 “super players” to 13 families and 8 “super banks” behind the Central Banks whom nobody “suspects”. See: http://forumforstablecurrencies.wordpress.com/2009/02/27/a-whistleblower-from-the-international-monetary-fund-uk/
More recently I even read about THE family: Loudon in the Netherlands.
With all my admiration and best wishes for more and more powers to your writing elbows,
Sabine
Organiser, Forum for Stable Currencies
http://tinyurl.com/666rwd [ironic, eh?]
We have the cult of the non-entity. People with no talent other than for being offensive get paid enormous sums for presenting TV programmes where they interview other non-entities, who in turn get paid vast sums for being ‘celebrities’.
If we are to dream, to follow our dreams like Santiago, it should be our own dreams, what makes us who we are, what gives us our individuality, what makes us human, not plastic dreams manufactured for us by global corporations and their puppet politicians.
Keith
We live in a very sad world. A world where the only drivel people read is glossy magazines devoted to ‘celebrities’, where they watch utter garbage on TV, where they themselves yearn to be celebrities.
What are these ‘celebrities’? People whose only name to fame is that they are a celebrity. They are generally of little talent, here today, gone tomorrow, to be replaced by the next celebrity. These non-entities are famous for being famous.
Once upon a time we would celebrate people of intellect and talent: Emile Zola, Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, Ann Radcliffe, Leo Tolstoy, Hermann Hesse, Mozart, Bach, Vivaldi, Picasso, Dali, Newton, Einstein …
There are people of talent today. The beautiful and talented Russian artist Dasha Balashova, so why do we have this obsession with ‘celebrities’?
In the summer I like to pay a visit to Brighton, wander around the old part, in particular North Laine, where there are still old shops retaining individuality and character. Then I like to wander down to the beach where a guy has a bookstall near the old derelict pier. He has a good selection of books, including good literature. What I have noticed is that the people browsing through the literature, and what you engage them in conversation know their literature, are nearly all female, usually in their twenties, and nearly always from Latin America or Eastern Europe.
There is thus hope yet.
People do have dreams, but it seems to be nearly always dreams planted in their minds by market manipulators. They have to have the latest mobile phone, the latest trainers, the latest fashion, listen to the latest banal pop that all sounds the same.
Maybe, just maybe, with the financial system collapsing, a system driven by greed and wanton consumerism, people will take stock and rethink their lives. Maybe like Santiago in The Alchemist, they will learn to follow their dreams, adapt real values, not follow the plastic dreams they have had manufactured for them.
I enjoyed the last book Brida, as I have enjoyed all the Paulo Coelho books. Last year for her birthday I sent my lovely friend Alissa in Moscow a copy of Brida not long after it had been published. Sadly it never reached her.
I shall look forward to picking up and reading a copy of The Winner Stands Alone.
Keith
Paulo: Thanks for writing this book.
With words you´re changing the world indeed.
I´m someone you opened the eyes to follow my true dreams.
Thanks Paulo.
[...] tempo: Paulo Coelho colocou em seu blog os doze primeiros capítulos de The winner stads alone para download grátis. Uma grande [...]
This is good. People need the kind of access you provide. Well done you Paulo.
The thoughts are suppressed and the minds are locked. people are blinded and ears shut. It is important that at times like this, everybody takes the responsibility to break through and speak the truth, fight for the truth and seek justice. everything is controlled and misrepresented. Mr.Coelho lead the way for those who know you and encourage others also – for how can we live or even die knowing the very world we live in is so full of filth.
BTW all ur books are a joy to read and refreshes the mind from the hate-full world.
Good luck and lets all seek our dreams for a better world, better life!!
I wandered into Borders yesterday, looking for something else, and came out with the new book. Thank you Paulo, for your insightful timing on more than one count…