Paulo Coelho was born in Rio de Janeiro in August 1947. Before ... According to
Paulo Coelho, The Winner Stands Alone, is a snapshot of the world we live in.
© Emanuele Scorcellett i / GAMMA
Paulo Coelho The Winner stands Alone
Paulo Coelho was born in Rio de Janeiro in August 1947. Before he became a world-renowned author he had various other occupations: journalist, hippie, rock star, actor, playwright and music producer. He loves reading, walking, computers, the Internet, football, music, and travelling. Every day, he wakes up early, goes for a two-hour walk and then practises Kyudo – a kind of meditative archery. He and his wife Christina Oiticica divide their lives between Rio de Janeiro and Europe.
© Mar tín Rendo
Facts & Figure s
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n More than 100 million copies sold worldwide n 18 books published: 12 novels; 4 short stories; 2 adaptations n Books published in 67 languages in 160 countries n 655 editions of Coelho's works n 2009 Guinness World Record for the most translated author for the same book (The Alchemist, 67 languages) n 33 international prizes and awards n Member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters since 2002 n United Nations Messenger of Peace n Ambassador for the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008 n A street in Santiago de Compostela is named after him n Paulo Coelho Institute founded in 1996 to support about 400 underprivileged Brazilian children n Newspaper columns syndicated in 182 media in 64 countries for over 10 years n 51 theatre adaptations of his works n Paulo Coelho's yearly Christmas tale has been a regular feature since 1998 n Paulo Coelho Pen, Montegrappa Special Series 2008 n 2004 Guinness World Record for the most translations (53) of a single title (The Alchemist) signed in one sitting (45 min.) n Speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos since 1998 n Board Member of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship n Board Member of the Óscar Niemeyer International Cultural Centre n Board Member of the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority
Paulo inaugurating Rúa de Paulo Coelho (Paulo Coelho Street) in Santiago de Compostela, Spain
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O Venced or e stá Só (2008) According to Paulo Coelho, The Winner Stands Alone, is a snapshot of the world we live in. The fast-moving plot takes place over a period of just under 24 hours during the Cannes Film Festival. However, it is not the movie industry that interests Igor Malev, a successful Russian entrepreneur; he has come to Cannes intent on winning back Ewa, the great love of his life. In order to attract his ex-wife's attention, Igor becomes a serial killer. This seriously sick enterprise is set against a backdrop of producers, famous actors, aspiring actresses, top models and fashion designers, giving us a scathing portrait of the Superclass, the elite of the elite who currently define how our lives are run. In providing the reader with details of how these characters - based on real-life people - live and behave, Paulo Coelho has written a novel that not only bears witness to a crisis of moral values in a world centred entirely on appearances, he has written, above all, a real page-turner of a thriller.
“As I finish writing these pages, there are currently several dictators in power. One country in the Middle East has been invaded by the only world superpower. Support for terrorist groups is growing. Fundamentalist Christians have the ability to elect presidents. The spiritual search is manipulated by various sects each claiming to possess "absolute knowledge". Whole cities are wiped from the map by Nature’s fury. According to research carried out by a reputable American intellectual, all the world’s power rests in the hands of six thousand people. There are thousands of prisoners of conscience on every continent. Torture is once again deemed acceptable as an interrogation method. The wealthier countries are closing their borders. The poor countries are witnessing an unprecedented exodus as their inhabitants leave in search of El Dorado. Genocide continues to be committed in at least two African countries. The economic system is showing signs of break-down, and great fortunes are beginning to collapse. Child slavery has become a constant. Hundreds of millions of people live below the poverty line. Nuclear proliferation is accepted as irreversible. New diseases emerge. The old diseases have not yet been brought under control. But is this a portrait of the world I live in? Of course not. When I decided to take a snapshot of my own times, I wrote this book”. – Paulo Coelho
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The world of celebrities will never be the same Editions: Rights sold in 38 languages Arabic (Lebanon and Middle East), Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch (Belgium, The Netherlands), English (Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa, UK, US), Estonian, Farsi, Finnish, French (Belgium, Canada, France, Switzerland), German (Austria, Germany, Switzerland), Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil and Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Simplified Chinese, Slovakian, Slovenian, Spanish (Argentina, Bolivia, Central America and the Caribbean, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, Uruguay, Venezuela), Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese.
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Que stions for Paulo Coelho What prompted you to write a book so different in subject matter and style from your other books? The subject matter may be different, but the style is the same: direct, without being superficial. Besides, in my most recent books, I’ve dealt with war and prostitution, and have moved away from the purely spiritual matters I wrote about at the beginning of my career. I want to be like any other writer and reflect the times I live in. But why talk about the world of celebrities, fashion and glamour? I've spent quite a lot of time in that world, and it always leaves me with an uneasy feeling. I'm more used to it now, but I still feel curious to know how things really work. The research I did was an attempt to explain those mechanisms, and so I chose as my main characters people who are full of dreams and who are doing all they can to make those dreams reality, but are going about it in entirely the wrong way. However materialistic their goals may seem, they are motivated by something that transcends the material world. I want readers to know that the people they imagine to be all-powerful superstars are, in fact, mere cogs in a machine manipulated by the few. You yourself are a winner. Do you stand alone? People think of a winner as someone who is loved by everyone. But as you climb the steps of fame, there’s always another side to that. People may be fascinated by you, but on the other hand, those who haven’t been as successful are bound to view you with a certain bitterness. That’s where the loneliness comes in. I think I’m a winner of a different sort. I do go to lots of events and parties, and I’m sure that I’m viewed by people with fascination and envy in about equal parts, but I have other commitments beyond my life as a writer. I’m a United Nations Messenger of Peace; I travel all over the world and meet all kinds of people of different nationalities and social classes. In fact that provides the raw material for my work. I have my wife as well as many friends. I’m alone when I make decisions, but never physically or emotionally alone. A winner can be alone or not, depending on the kind of life he chooses. – Extract from an interview published in Revista Época, Brazil, August 2008
Paulo visited Cannes in 2007 and 2008 to research the book
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Veronika Decide s to Die
n ( THE
FILM )
TITLE: Veron i k a D e c i d e s to D i e
D I R E C TO R : E m i ly Yo u n g
WRITERS: L a r ry G ro s s / Ro b e rta H a n l e y
n Drama USA R E L E A S E D AT E : Fa l l 2 0 0 9 ( U S A , U K ) S TAT U S : Po s t - P ro d u c t i o n B U D G E T: 9 million USD GENRE:
N AT I O N A L I T Y :
D I S T R I B U TO R S :
Wi d e P i c t u re s ( S pa i n ) / Fa lc o m ( G e r m a ny ) M G N Pa r a d i s e ( Ru s s i a ) I m ag e m ( B r a z i l / L at i n A m e r i c a ) / S h ow t i m e ( S o u t h Kore a )
The Illustrated Alchemist (2008) Editorial Planeta has produced a beautiful co-edition of The Alchemist with illustrations that contain alchemical symbols from the 16th century first published in Claude Paradin's Les Devises Héroïques (1556), printed and bound in high-quality materials.
20th Anniversary of the Alchemist Exhibition: The Alchemy of Letters Throughout 2008, The Alchemist is celebrating its 20th anniversary with the travelling exhibition "The Alchemy of Letters". The show pays tribute to a cross-border phenomenon in the history of world literature. Conceived and designed by the Óscar Niemeyer International Cultural Centre, the exhibition first opened at the Valdercana Palace of Avilés (Spain), and then moved on to the following cities:
Editions: Rights sold in 10 languages Danish, Dutch (Belgium, The Netherlands), Finnish, French (Belgium, Canada, France, Switzerland), Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Portugal), Spanish (Andean area, Colombia, Ecuador, Spain, Venezuela), Swedish.
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Milan (Italy) Sala Buzzati, Corriere della Sera Foundation n Arendal (Norway) Arendal Library n Bucharest (Romania) Gaudeamus Book Fair n Stuttgart (Germany) Mercedes-Benz Museum n Helsinki (Finland) Helsinki Book Fair n Moscow (Russia) Central House of Artists n Copenhagen (Denmark) National Library n Bogotá (Colombia) Centro Comercial Santa Fé.
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© Al l photos by Tony Miret
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O Mag o: The Magician – The Story of Paulo Coelho (2008) Fernando Morais, the author who helped to establish biography as a literary genre in Brazil, focusses his investigative energies on the Brazilian who has become the one great legend in Brazil's recent history: Paulo Coelho. On looking into Paulo Coelho’s life, Morais discovered someone whose story had such potency, drama and human interest that he concluded that “even if Paulo had never written or sold a single book, his life would make a tremendous novel”. The Magician is the electrifying life of a popstar who is courted by princes, sheikhs, queens and presidents. A story that not even the most creative of screenwriters could have dreamed up.
“I don’t know what my reaction will be when I read what’s in this biography, but in the chapel right in front of me now are written the words: 'And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free'.” – Paulo Coelho
Editions: Rights sold in 21 languages Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch (Belgium, The Netherlands), English (Australia, New Zealand, UK, US), Finnish, French (Belgium, Canada, France, Switzerland), German (Austria, Germany, Switzerland), Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil, Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Spanish (Argentina, Bolivia, the Caribbean, Central America, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, Uruguay, Venezuela), Swedish and Turkish.
“Paulo made an ethical decision to give free access to the darkest corners of his life. It is perhaps this blend of mysticism and astonishing candour as regards his past that explains why Paulo Coelho – despite all his detractors – is revered throughout the world as someone very special.” – Luís Antônio Giron / Revista Época “The biographer won his subject’s trust, had access to his diaries and interviewed hundreds of people to form the huge picture, or perhaps giant jigsaw puzzle, that eventually became The Magician, one of Fernando Morais’ most complete biographies.” – Carlos Herculano Lopes / O Estado de Minas
Journalist Fernando Morais, the author of some of the best-known biographies published in Brazil, among them the bestsellers Olga (1985) and Chato, o Rei do Brasil (1994), has, in the past, sifted through military archives and manuscripts in Russian for his work. However, none of those experiences prepared him for what happened at the beginning of 2007, when he was handed the key to an enormous black chest almost the size of a wardrobe and disguised as a television stand in the maid’s room of a magnificent penthouse apartment in Copacabana. The owner of the chest, author Paulo Coelho, handed over more than the key; for he gave the journalist permission to use the contents of that chest as he wished. Morais was not only at liberty to examine diaries, letters, tapes, photos and notes spanning several decades, he also received a promise from the subject of the biography that he would not interfere at any point in the writing of the book. What more could a celebrity biographer want? His first feeling was one of excitement. “I had imagined it would be a small chest containing only correspondence,” he said, “but when I removed the seal on that enormous box, I sensed a special smell emanating from it – the smell of pure gold.” He removed the contents one by one, as thrilled as if he had alighted on Ali Baba’s treasure. There were a hundred cassette recordings and 170 black hard-back notebooks filled with letters, cuttings and memorabilia. These were Coelho’s diaries, both written and recorded on tape, which he started when he was 12 and continued until he was 48. “I began searching his soul and his guts,” Morais says. – Extract from Luis Antonio Giron's article for Revista Época, Brazil, June 2008
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Internet
Paulo Coelho's website n 12.5 million hits n 16 language s Paulo Coelho's blo g n 1.5 million hits n over 11,000 c omments Paulo Coelho's newsletter n 223,616 subs cribers n over 1 million hits n 7 language s 367,323 friends in all the Internet c ommunitie s put to gether MySpace n 34,193 friends Orkut n 66,705 fans Facebo ok n 77,978 fans YouTube n 1,020 videos (Status from September 2008)
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TITLE:
E x pe r i m e n ta l Wi tch
IDEA:
WRITER:
Pau lo C o e l h o
Fi l m c o m pe t i t i o n ba s e d o n t h e n ove l The Witc h of Portobello by Pau lo C o e l h o PA RT I C I PA N T S :
Experimental Witch
6,000
/ D I R E C TO R S : A a ron J. M a rch ( H e ron Rya n ) Ta m s i n M c c a rt hy ( A n d re a M c C a i n ) A l e x Je h s ( E d da ) A d r i a na G a r z a ( Sa m i r a ) G e o f f S te wa rt ( L u k á s ) M i ch a e l M ye r s ( Fat h e r Fon ta na ) Jen n i fe r B o l l i n g e r ( Pave l ) C r a i g A rch i ba l d ( P e te r S h e r n e y ) Ta d e h Da s ch i ( Na b i l ) Ba n L i l l a ( Vo s h o ) L i n da Va n D e r S te e n ( L i l i a na ) Fer na n d o Du p r at ( A n to i n e L o c a d o u r ) A l fo n s o S ua re z ( Jo u r na l i s t ) Sylvia Fodor (Scotland Yard and Lella Zainab) WINNERS
n ( THE
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n E l i s a b e t ta S g a r b i / E u g e n i o L i o / C l a r a B e l é n G ó m e z P R O D U C E R S : B e t t y W ro n g ( e d i t i n g ) / Pau lo C o e l h o
J U RY :
D r a m a N AT I O N A L I T Y : Wor l d R E L E A S E D AT E : Fa l l 2 0 0 8 ( I n ter n e t ver s i o n ) S TAT U S : Po s t - p ro du c t i o n D I S T R I B U T I O N : To b e s u b m i t te d to f i l m fe s t i va l s wor l dw i d e A W A R D S : C i n e m a for P e ace S pe c i a l Awa rd P A R T N E R S : H e w l e t t - Pack a rd / M y S pace / G 1 / Bu rda / P r i s m a P re s s P U B L I C I T Y C A M P A I G N : G o o d by S i lve r s te i n & Pa rt n e r s i n c o l l a b o r at i o n w i t h Tr a n s i s to r S t u d i o s N e w Yor k , s h o rt - l i s te d for a Ti ta n i u m L i o n at t h e C a n n e s I n ter nat i o na l A dvert i s i n g Fe s t i va l GENRE:
Vi e w t h e c o m p l e te d i s c l a i m e r i n t h i s l i n k : w w w. pau lo c o e l h o b lo g . c o m / e x pe r i m e n ta l - w i tch - d i s c l a i m e r
New Stationery Line Joy – Diary 2009 by Paulo Coelho Illust r at ions by Catalina Est r ada / Desig n by Lene Stangebye Ge v ing This new line of stationery has illustrations by the internationally renowned Colombian artist Catalina Estrada, created exclusively for this title. Joy is an enchanting, brightly-coloured diary, which will bring a feeling of happiness throughout the year. This beautiful series of stationery books with quotes from the author's best-loved titles has been marketed since 2003 and has sold 1.5 million copies in 19 countries.
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“Paulo Coelho's special talent seems to be his ability to speak to everyone at once. He is a lenient teacher, and an empathetic one. This is the reason for the astonishing appeal of Paulo Coelho, whose books have sold 100,000,000 copies worldwide.” – Dana Goodyear / The New Yorker
LINKS:
w w w. pau lo c o e l h o. c o m w w w. pau lo c o e l h o b lo g . c o m
SANT JORDI ASOCIADOS Agencia Literaria
C O N TA C T : Sa n t Jord i A s o c i a d o s Ag e n c i a L i te r a r i a A d d re s s : Pa s s e i g G a rc i a i Fa r i a , 7 3 - 7 5 , Tor re A , 7 º 5 º , 0 8 0 1 9 Ba rce lo na , S pa i n P h o n e : + 3 4 93 2 2 4 0 1 07 / Fax : + 3 4 93 35 6 2 6 9 6 E m a i l : m a i l @ s a n t j o rd i - a s o c i a d o s . c o m / We b s i te : w w w. s a n t j o rd i - a s o c i a d o s . c o m
Gr aphic desig n: Lene Stangebye Ge v ing / www.fulltank.org
Th e Wi n n e r S ta n d s A lo n e : w w w. oven ce d o re s ta s o. c o m . b r Th e M ag i c i a n : w w w. fe r na n d o m o r a i s . c o m . b r
