Paulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho was born on 24 August 1947, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist and a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters since 2002.

He attended a Jesuit school. At 17, Coelho’s parents committed him to a mental institution from which he escaped three times before being released at the age of 20.

At his parents’ wishes, He enrolled in law school and abandoned his dream of becoming a writer. One year later, he dropped out and lived life as a hippie, traveling through South America, North Africa, Mexico, and Europe, and started using drugs in the 1960s.

He is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters since 2002. His novel The Alchemist became an international best-seller and he has published 30 more books since then.