Every time you have to open the bow Paulo Coelho is one of the world’s best-selling authors. His most famous book, The Alchemist, has sold 150 million copies worldwide, and has been translated into 81 languages – a record for living authors. The Alchemist is a allegorical novel with epic, magical elements, famous for its wonderful language and depictions of place, and simultaneously tapping into a more modern current of selfhelp and positive thinking. Many of his works are more autobiographical, pulling from his eventful life at the crossroads of hippiedom and Brazil in the 1960s and 70s, but it's the relentless positivity of The Alchemist has made his name.