Eleven Minutes: A Novel (P.S.)
by Paulo Coelho
List Price:
Our Price: $6.54
You Save: $8.45 (56%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Paulo CoelhoEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-03-29
ISBN: 0060589280
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780060589288
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Eleven Minutes: A Novel (P.S.)
Book Review: Somehow I never fail to be so wonderfully inspired...
Summary: 5 Stars
...by the collected works of Brazilian author Paulo Coelho. He seems to have hit a certain note in his writings that promises to ring true forevermore. His is not a linear style, folks. ELEVEN MINUTES: A NOVEL is not a formulaic novel of "first this happens, then that happens, then something else happens." You can jump into any part of this story and basically live life at its finest. Life at its most complex and inscrutable and pleasurable--the pleasure within the deep pain, do you know what I'm talking about? Coelho writes his meandering tale as the game of life itself generally occurs: it has twists, stops, starts, and all sorts of gaps in between. Things don't stop when they're supposed to stop. Things don't start where they're supposed to start. And matters also don't proceed according to plan. Rarely will you notice that what is supposed to happen, happens. Here's a good analogy: think of how your mind works at the best of times, how it assaults you with mile-a-minute calculations and considerations. Imagine how you run your typical day, and the process via which you go about making decisions.
It's never a straightforward process, is it?
One moment you can be lolling in the doldrums, without a clue, then something can smack you in the face and make you wonder just how deeply you'd managed to slip into that funk of yours, feeling sorry for yourself, imagining where you can take the first exit to Check-Out-of-Life Land, buying yourself a one-way express train ticket to hell...then you suddenly realize it was all a Grand Test, papito. That there was more to it, and the Great One, Whomever It May Be For You, was merely pressing your corporeal buttons, wanting to see how much you can take. To basically see what you're made of. To see if you can walk the walk as well as you tell your friends how godfearing and believing of a person you really are.
There were some of the thoughts that were racing through my mind, Indy500-style, as I blew through page after excellently-translated (from the Portuguese) page of Coelho's latest installment.
Coelho's example in life further indicates to me that some of the best scribes and novellists on this planet are the ones who have stared the face of Hell dead in the eyes, and have lived to tell the tale. The ones who have managed to face down their most dastardly demons, and who have the scars, the tattoos, the breast implants, the Botox, the piercings, and the expensive quick-fixes to show it. Not to mention the thousand and one lovers (paid or otherwise). The ones who have dared to "go there," against all the odds and conventional wisdom...who'd one day decided to cast their lot in with the Fates, not caring for that one very moment whether or not they lived or died or say the next bowl of weeties in the morning.
Because it's there, on the cusp of such indecision, where the fruits of the vine can be deliciously picked. It's there, where you can feel the gusts of hot backwind gushing up from the abyss, drawing you downward with their complex convenction currents, that you--so mortal and so very afraid--are unable to resist its powerful yank, Frank.
Know this, my dear readers...some of the best (and therefore the most successful people, from a lifestyle standpoint, which also generally equates to the "game of life" standpoint) in the world are the one who've faced down such adversity. I'm not surprised that someone like Maria was able to overcome her fears, and overcome her provincial inner-jungle background to achieve the very best of what there was in life in a land where people from the outside are shunned with as much love as a bout of the stomach flu. I believe this is also the dream of many city dwellers, those who were born and raised in large metropolises, to be able to come to the aid of their families...it's a romantic notion indeed. I salute people like Maria.
In fact, the best experience is the one you engage in and create all by yourself, not the one which is handed down to you third-hand. Those are the people we drool over, the ones who populate the pages of some of our best novels, the ones who form the bases of our most memorable fictional characters, the ones who cause films and books to climb to the tops of the bestseller charts.
But where do these people come from? I say to you, friends, that they breathe and live. They TRULY exist.
Rolf is also quite true to form. In our age of rapid advancement, with cheaper airfares, plentiful business opportunities to deceive and be deceived, massive advances in technology which continue to set us apart from one another, the fact that someone can become burned out with life at such an early age (in their 30s) is really possible. Godhonest. That Rolf is looking out for something totally different, and that he finds his passion and solace in Maria...someone so lambasted by the mainstream and the System...we shouldn't be in the least bit alarmed. Artists go looking for their daily inspiration (which for them is their daily bread) in all the so-called darkly mysterious places. They go digging into the muck to pull out the pearls, and sometimes the muck is more than six-feet deep, the metaphor being a significant one, Jack.
I'm sure any one of us who have enjoyed this particular novel have met more than our fair share of Rolfs over this lifetime, have we not? If you haven't, then it's coming, toots. When you meet your potential Rolf, please don't judge him too harshly...
In all--and as I haven't read the other reviews on this site, though I'm sure they're all, for the most part, complimentary to the author (and rightfully so)--I'd have to say that each and every one of us is going to derive something different from our reads. We're going to zero in on the thing which pulled most stridently at our heartstrings, and overemphasize, perhaps, that which others might find somewhat trivial. I can give you examples, but you've got other books to read, have you not?
No matter.
There's enough inside the pages of this book to tease and tickle almost any human...regardless of gender, regardless of nationality.
Coelho does it again, and in this way I feel that he's truly gifted with something that he was born to do. It's such a sweet sensation reading a piece of literature which rolls off the fingertips of the greats.
I can't wait for his next cut.
Hand on the heart,
ADM from Prague
Summary of Eleven Minutes: A Novel (P.S.)
Eleven Minutes is the story of Maria, a young girl from a Brazilian village, whose first innocent brushes with love leave her heartbroken. At a tender age, she becomes convinced that she will never find true love, instead believing that "love is a terrible thing that will make you suffer. . . ." A chance meeting in Rio takes her to Geneva, where she dreams of finding fame and fortune. Maria's despairing view of love is put to the test when she meets a handsome young painter. In this odyssey of self-discovery, Maria has to choose between pursuing a path of darkness -- sexual pleasure for its own sake -- or risking everything to find her own "inner light" and the possibility of sacred sex, sex in the context of love.
This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
Latin American Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Latin American Books
El otoño del patriarca (Vintage Espanol) (Spanish Edition)by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Vintage; Published: 2010-08-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.98
Price in other shops:
Cien años de soledad (Vintage Espanol) (Spanish Edition)by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Vintage; Published: 2009-09-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.81
Price in other shops:
Yawar Fiesta (Texas Pan American Series)by Jose Maria Arguedas
Univ of Texas Pr; Published: 1985-03; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
Neruda: An Intimate Biography (Texas Pan American Series)by Volodia Teitelboim
University of Texas Press; Published: 1991-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $75.32
The Shattered Mirror: Representations of Women in Mexican Literature (Texas Pan American Series)by María Elena de Valdés
University of Texas Press; Published: 1998; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
Convergences: Essays on Art and Literatureby Octavio Paz
Mariner Books; Published: 1991-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $16.39
Price in other shops:
Poems of the Night: A Dual-Language Edition with Parallel Text (Penguin Classics)by Jorge Luis Borges
Penguin Classics; Published: 2010-03-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.65
Price in other shops:
The Book of Imaginary Beings (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)by Jorge Luis Borges
Penguin Classics; Published: 2006-09-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.63
Price in other shops:
Zorroby Isabel Allende
Harper Perennial; Published: 2006; Paperback; Book
La novia oscura: Novela (Esenciales) (Spanish Edition)by Laura Restrepo
Rayo; Published: 2009-05-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.64
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
The Witch of Portobello: A Novel (P.S.)by Paulo Coelho
Harper Perennial; Published: 2008-02-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.36
Price in other shops:
The Fifth Mountain: A Novel (P.S.)by Paulo Coelho
Harper Perennial; Published: 2009-02-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.35
Price in other shops:
The Devil and Miss Prym: A Novel of Temptation (P.S.)by Paulo Coelho
Harper Perennial; Published: 2007-04-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.75
Price in other shops:
Brida: A Novel (P.S.)by Paulo Coelho
Harper Perennial; Published: 2009-02-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.48
Price in other shops:
The Valkyriesby Paulo Coelho
HarperOne; Published: 1996-08-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops:
By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept: A Novel of Forgivenessby Paulo Coelho
Harper Perennial; Published: 2006-05-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.95
Price in other shops:
Veronika Decides to Die: A Novel of Redemptionby Paulo Coelho
Harper Perennial; Published: 2006-05-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.98
Price in other shops:
The Zahir: A Novel of Obsession (P.S.)by Paulo Coelho
Harper Perennial; Published: 2006-07-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.95
Price in other shops:
The Pilgrimage (Plus)by Paulo Coelho
HarperOne; Published: 2008-09-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.46
Price in other shops:
Warrior of the Light: A Manualby Paulo Coelho
HarperOne; Published: 2004-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.51
Price in other shops: