a mor
ame or
a roma
a rome fait comme les ro mains
l’ame est d’or

I was telling my friend that I should have read this book 2 years ago and I felt bad for just reading it now, she told me it was not available in English 2 years ago, and I told her “but i saw you reading those chapters online, you should have told me that this book is giving you all the answers you are looking for”. However, my friend did gave me copies of the online first chapters and they were on my desk for months until i recently read the Zahir and the winner stands alone because I was passing with tough time and this is the way my friend thought to help me get out of this tough phase.
What I like most about the so many issues in this book, is the similarity to the thoughts and believes and morals that I have, know, experienced or believe. And for having someone with richness and ability to sum and to present life’s wisdom, just made me realise from where am coming and it helped me to connect with similar humans.

I have just finished your book “THE WINNER STANDS ALONE”

What I don’t understand is that Savoy knew who the killer was and yet made no attempt to arrest him. Why?

Your books can be life changing and I thank you for the opportunity.

Kind regards

Andrew

I just finished your book and I must say you did a wonderful work in writing it. I think that you managed to show us what is hiding behind the cameras, a world that not many imagine because they are so focused on the blitz of the camera and being famous. I know that it is a fiction but I can’t stop thinking that it all real. Everything it is just for show and no substance.
Vanity is the key word and is affecting everyone, even the people like Savoy and Morris that should know better or they should be more concerned with the people who have died or the ones that are going to die if they don’t do their job. But as the Cannes festival begins no one is safe from the illusion the film industry creates and the fame that it is promised.
I really like the main character, Igor even though he is set on a path of destruction without giving a second thought to the lives he is destroying; he is unable to see his own mistakes that lead to Ewa leaving him. He, like everyone else in the real world isn’t completely good or completely bad. We all have a dark side and the instinct of self-preservation brings it out. His actions cannot be pardoned but at the same time I was hoping he will see reason. I admire the character for his intellect and his ambition but he presents symptoms of schizophrenia. I don’t know how much he does all this in the name of love or to punish Ewa.
Ewa is in part responsible for the murders because she knew exactly what the massages meant and she did nothing to stop him; maybe not stop him personally but at least alert the police. But she remained in her little world full of glamour and money and let more people die when she had the power to stop it.
And in the end you are right, a winner is always alone. The more successful you are the more you will be surrounded by people who want something from you or envy you.
PS: if this book is turned into a movie it will do it no justice.

Right now I’m halfway reading “The winner stands alone” and, though it’s very different from the others, indeed I think that it teaches you how boring and predictable is the world of the materialist superclass when all the conversations are pretentions and nothing is honest.

I hope you always keep writing books!

I live in Iran (you was here once), the country of great ancient poets and authors.I’ve read all your books, translated by “Arash Hejazi”.
Although most of your key phrases and sentences are already in our language and culture, but I love your modern style.
There is a big “BUT” in your last book and honestly I didn’t like it.Even during reading this book I had the feeling:”this can’t be my Paolo!!!”
But I adore your previous books and they shine like eternal burning candles in my mind.
May God give you more power and enlighten your road.

Bahram

thanks for writing such nice books.
but someone made the wrong decision saving space be minimizing the font to little black dots on a page.

hoping to get a response about this latter.

have a nice and fruitful week.
Grace.

To begin with, it took me extremely great effort and stubbornness to finish reading the book, actually until I read about two-thirds I had to take it and leave it again many times, which does not usually happen. Having in mind the book is an “international best-seller” I had much different expectations and I was astonished that the plot was quite scattered, many of the characters were left undeveloped, the action was uncompleted, and after I closed the book I had the feeling that I was left empty-handed.

There are many maxims in the book, meaningful and instructive, but first of all, many of them are well-known and, second, as if they make a kind of scaffolding and the actual content and development are just stuffed inside. The concepts of action within 24 hours and many unrelated characters who meet in a given moment later on, are very promising taken together, but the truth is that I was confused in understanding who’s who in the chapter and what mission they have, and exactly at the moment something began, I had to move to a totally different content. After the third murder things start to develop more quickly, more lively and I could focus on a topic.

Nevertheless, I’d like to make few personal remarks. Why is Igor murdering people AROUND in order to regain one already lost love? There should be made a clear border between sacrifice and murder, whereas these two concepts are quite messed up in the book and could lead to misinterpretation. What I found quite inconsistent is the appearance of the “angel”. Now, many people would say that it is just a book, if you do not understand it – look in a more philosophic way, if you do not see completeness – complete it the way you wish. Has Ewa/Katyusha also changed her name? Probably I have missed something, but normally Katyusha is short from Ekaterina in Russian. Gabriela/Lisa and her one-day stardom could have given “bread” for a whole book itself, though the topic has been used 100 times. Cristina/Jasmine remains for me as one of the undeveloped characters; by the way, the android-like assistant was a good stroke I’d say; HH died for the only pride…

From “The Winner Stands Alone” I could not learn much for the winners, but I was absorbed in the atmosphere in Cannes and this is what I shall always associate the book with.

And by the way, as far as I remember from my childhood, Aladdin has a magic lamp, whereas the cave belongs to Ali Baba and the forty thieves (there was a reference in the book).

Regards,
Iva

i dnt know exactly what to say after reading winner stands alone…its ur book so of course its ur perception of the world..but i think a winner never stands alone in his life.because a true winner is powerful enough to choose whether he wants to stans alone or not.the winner of ur book is actually a looser who is destined to stand alone.

Regards

Thank you for your new book!

Although the topic is very timely, really interesting and very insightful, I feel a bit disturbed and can´t really tell why. I have the impression it´s somehow a bit incomplete.

That´s why I would like to ask you two questions.

Firstly, I do understand the constant battle between good and bad and the history of serial killers who have “a higher mission” to fulfill to make the world a better place. Igor doesn´t really fit in this really since he only kills to send a message to one person. He changes his motive during the book and realizes that he also has a higher mission to fulfill, although it´s not clear to me what it is. Ok, he saves the soul of his first victim preventing her from an unhappy future. But apart from that I can´t see the link between his murders and the impact it would have on the Superclass, since nobody sees the connection between the murders anyway (apart from the two police officers). Is he just saving his own soul and becoming free of his obsession? Is this his mission?

Secondly, in the beginning of the book, you are mentioning 4 main characters, who let themselves being manipulated by the system. But you only names three of them (Igor, Hamid and Gabriela). I am wondering if the fourth one is Jasmine? She is the only one who manages to escape all this before it´s too late. She decides consciously against this life and for her love and is therefore doing the opposite of what Igor did years ago before he destroyed his and his wife´s life.

All the best,
Kathrin

I have just finished reading your fantastic book The Winner Stands Alone (in Hebrew) It has left me feeling very stormy. I have read all of your other books, and must say that this one has a different feeling to it. It walks the line between the demonic and the loving in such a neutral, almost deceitful way. I almost could buy into the reasonings of the murderer for committing his murders, and his being so matter of fact about them. As the writer, you refrained from any superfluous judgment , and let the reader himself find his way through the unfolding of the moral issues. I find that your writing in this book exceeds even your former exceptional creations with its emotional power and perceptional clarity.
I work in the music industry myself, and could identify with so much of what you have described.
i wish you all the best, and thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the wonderful insights you have given me over the years. You have been a wonderful support on my spiritual journey.
Love and Health from Me.