The title page rightly describes the book as a ''magical fable about following your dream.'' The book describes a
journey
of almost everyone''s life and so it is very easy to relate ourselves to the book and the characters of the story. Paulo has tried to ignite within us, the flame of faith, courage, adventure, and determination to walk on the path chosen by God for us. It is a path which when followed nurtures our soul with a deep sense of joy and fervor and helps it to grow and flourish. Paulo explains his point through a story of a young boy, a shepherd who becomes aware of his personal calling through recurrent dreams about a
treasure hidden somewhere near the pyramids awaiting him. Fulfillment of his dream requires him to go across whole of the Sahara dessert endangering his life and risking all the good things that he has gained till date in his life. It requires him to to pass through the places that he had never even heard of like Tarifa, Tanger, Faiyum etc. But setting aside all his fears the brave boy sets out leaving behind his routine life, his long time companions, the sheep, to find his treasure. All through his
journey the boy comes across a load of obstacles like fear of failure, prejudices, love of his loved one, treachery by strangers and uncertainty of future and many more but emerges victorious in the end due to the belief in his dream and in himself as being worthy of achieving it. The boy experiences that the whole universe conspires in his favour once he sets out on the true path laid out for him, through the common soul passing through whole of the nature - the humans, the sheep, the sky, the birds, the sun, the wind and what not. We can also experience this in our own life , which we usually call as Beginner’s luck which signifies that the soul of the world is encouraging us to follow the path of our destiny. The boy wins over his treasure following the various signs and omens shown to him by the nature in the form of butterflies, crickets, stars, snake etc. Paulo asserts the importance of plunging our soul into the universal current of life and getting connected with the soul of the world. This is possible only when we try to understand the universal language common to all the creations of this world, a language of love, more to be felt than heard and understood better by those filled with courage and love and those who follow their heart. In the latter part of his journey the boy meets The Alchemist who accompanies him through a part of the journey and helps and supports the boy to follow his dream. It is in this part of the story that the boy realizes that alchemy can be learnt even in everyday life as alchemy is simply the penetration of our soul to the soul of the world to discover what treasure our destiny holds for us and what is our actual purpose of being here. Alchemists are the wise men who according to literal meaning purify metals and ultimately turn them into gold but actually during this process they in turn purify their own souls and understand themselves and their surroundings better due to ample amount of time spent in solitude. To conclude, I would describe the book as a magnificient experience or more appropriately a worth going through journey which can actually have a life smoothening effect on a million lives and can bring back the lost peace of a million souls.