Brida, by Paulo Coelho

June 26, 2009 by Nekkidblogger
Filed under: Fiction, International bestseller, New York Times bestseller, Paulo Coelho, bestseller, book review, recommendation

Paulo Coelho is one of the most gifted and beloved story tellers of our time. As well, he has a mind where, seemingly, fantasy is allowed to roam free of constraints. Thus his books are things of beauty – with tales that tickle the minds of his readers and impart small but important insights about the machinations of the world we inhabit.

The relatively short and delightful tale of Brida O’Fem is definitely such a book – a well crafted mind stretcher! Young, cute Brida is an Irish lass wishing to become a witch. Her tale, set in Ireland during the mid-80s, is fantastic, compelling and vividly told. In its own right, it’s an epic.

Like the main characters in other Coelho books, she goes searching for the wisdom and crafts she will need. But is it magic she wants? Or love? Or wisdom? Does she really know? She meets people of great wisdom. She is taught about the other, spiritual world. She is taught to see and listen. She learns to overcome fears. She learns to hear the music of the world, and to dance to it. She learns to pray to the moon. She encounters the concept of the soul mate.

But where in the multitude of options in the many planed universe lies her destiny? And what is it? How and where is fulfillment to be found – in love, passion, mystery, witchcraft? And what is it she is learning on her strange journey – more, I think, self-discovery and self-acceptance than anything else.

Brida is a book which transforms the reading experience into a journey of its own. A travel alongside Brida into the depths of the readers’ minds. Beautifully worded, marvelously told, stirring the senses and raising a desire to reach that which must be there, at the end of the journey. A mind-teaser of a book!

Links to Paulo Coelho’s books at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

Review of The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho