The Alchemist by Paulo Cohelo

A novel that I read a long time ago and still remember was “The Alchemist” by Paulo Cohelo.

The story is about a young shepherd from Andalucia Spain named Santiago who had a dream that revealed the location of a treasure buried at the egyptian pyramids.

He decided to sell all his sheeps and to travel to Africa, but there he was robbed and lost all his gold. Then he thought  that he was a foolish to believe in his dreams and got a job with a crystal merchant in order to save money to go back home.

When he got enough money to come back to his home he decided to continue his original plan and joined to a caravan to cross the desert. In the caravan met an Englishman who was alchemist and taught very import lessons.

The most important lesson occurred when they were inspected by a couple of soldiers that found a bottle with a yellow liquid and a crystal yellow egg, when the soldiers asked about those things the alchemist said the liquid is an elixir that cures all diseases and the crystal become metals to gold but the soldiers didn´t believe and laughed a lot. So Santiago realized that the men don´t recognize a treasure even it is in front of their eyes.

When the caravan stopped in an oasis he met a girl and fell in love of her, but continued his way to the pyramids without her.

Finally he got to the pyramids and started to dig in a spot that he thought was the treasure, but a group of thieves get there. They forced him to dig in order to steal the treasure but when they realized that there is not a treasure started to beat him and one of them said that once he dreamed about a treasure in a ruined temple in Spain where sheperds slept and dig deep at the roots of a big sycamore tree to find a treasure but he was not so stupid to cross the desert for a dream.

So he came back home with his girl and then found the treasure that once the thief dreamed.

The messages that I liked is that a man have to follow his dreams and when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.