The Pilgrimage paved the way to Paulo Coehlo's international bestselling novel The Alchemist. In many ways, these two volumes are companions—to truly comprehend one, you must read the other.

Step inside this captivating account of Paulo Coehlo's pilgrimage along the road to Santiago. This fascinating parable explores the need to find one's own path. In the end, we discover that the extraordinary is always found in the ordinary and simple ways of everyday people. Part adventure story, part guide to self-discovery, this compelling tale delivers the perfect combination of enchantment and insight.

Pilgrimage as a spiritual exercise is found in many major religious traditions. It provides a concentrated spiritual experience in which a person is separated from the mundane world of bills, job and family. During that separation the pilgrim undergoes an experience of transformation--a symbolic death and resurrection. At the end of the pilgrimage the pilgrim is returned to the world of the mundane as a "new person", with a deeper understanding of himself/herself and the world in which he/she lives. This classic process of transformation is apparent in Coelho's book. Indeed, an underlying theme of the book is that all of life can be understood as a pilgrimage--a sacred journey of transformation.

I thought the book was excellent. It was a pleasure to follow Coelho on his pilgrimage and to be reminded of the same lessons that were shared with him by his guide on the journey. But then I've read everything of his that I can get ahold of in English translation and like it all.