I wrote the book in the third person so I could see myself and look at things from a greater distance than how I perceived them at the time. Some more visibly so, such as The Pilgrimage or The Valkyries, and others less so. PAULO COELHO: All my books are a reflection of my soul. How did it feel being your own character this time? You say its events did happen and you only pass them through the filter of fiction for the reader's benefit. The book, already available in Europe and the United States, will be on sale in Argentina starting in September.ĬLARIN: Hippie is self-fiction. On his release, he decides to follow though on his oft-imagined plans to travel to Europe and onto Nepal. The book recalls young Paulo's adventures in the wake of an affair with an older woman, including a prison stint and torture in then military-run Brazil. 'And it's what I did when I wrote Hippie, just recounting what I had experienced.' 'I think that is what writing is,' Coelho says. and go on till you come to the end: then stop.'

In an interview by e-mail, the Brazilian writer tells Clarín that in writing Hippie, he followed the simple advice of Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Carroll: 'Begin at the beginning. It's fast-paced, but he'd prefer people don't treat it 'like a thriller' and rush through it.

His latest - and 20th book overall - is a 'fictional' autobiography called Hippie. BUENOS AIRES - A new book by Paulo Coelho is always something to look forward to.

Coelho hippie