06 Jul Paulo Coelho’s new novel, The Zahir, will be published in S

Paulo Coelho’s new novel, The Zahir, will be published in September by HarperCollins.What role does spirituality play in your books? I was always a religious person. I grew up, like almost all Brazilians, in a strictly Catholic family. Later, at the age of rebellion, I doubted Catholicism, and felt that I must try something new. Then I became a hippie. During this time, I traveled a lot, met people of different backgrounds, and had learned different paths to come closer to spirituality. After I did a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, I returned to the Catholic faith–just because it is in my blood, not because it is the best religion (although the current pope may disagree…). All religions have advantages and disadvantages.Humans have always looked for a sense of purpose for their life. And there are essentially three ways to achieve this: art, science and religion. But if science and religion meet, we will have problems. Spirituality has nothing to do with whether you believe in God or not–it is an approach to life. During the twentieth century we experienced the dictatorship of science, which tells us that the world consists only of scientifically provable things. Thus the amazement and suprise of experiening our souls were lost to us.What issues do you explore in The Zahir that you have not explored in previous works? This is the story we hear about success: If you are successful, you should buy this brand, go to this restaurant, talk about this book or this opera, drive this car. In fact, this goes back, in my opinion, to Darwin’s theory of the survival of the more strong and fit. We try to prove that we are capable of rising above the average. Although we are not in the caverns anymore, we still behave as if we were–struggling to prove that we are the best. One of the most important things in The Zahir is that the main characters are constantly thinking about this: Who am I?Am I who I am, or am I believing in a story that was OK some centuries, millennia, ago, but now is totally outdated? This is the main subject: What story did people tell me? Why do I still believe it? Is this story in fact totally outdated?Why do you think The Alchemist has been so well received? When I wrote The Alchemist, I was trying to understand my own life, and the only way that I could do it was through a metaphor. Then, the book–with no support of press coverage, because the media normally refuses to publish anything about an unknown writer–made its way to the readers, and the readers started to discover that we share the same questions. Little by little, the book started to travel abroad, and today is one of the bestselling books of all time. But this success came slowly, based on word-of-mouth, and this gives me the sensation, the wonderful sensation, that I am not alone. Of course, by being a well-known author, I never feel myself as a stranger in a strange land, and I am pleased with the idea that many people, all over the world, share a similar modern perspective on life.What question do you wish people would ask you? ‘Are you happy?’ The answer is: ‘No.’ Happiness is like a Sunday afternoon–very boring. I am in my personal turmoil, which is much more interesting than happiness.If you could only keep one material possession, excluding a writing tool, what would it be? A lawnmower and enough fuel.