Hippie
From the bestselling author of The Alchemist
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3.6 • 5 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A journey to the past. A map for the future.
Drawing on the rich experience of his own life, bestselling author Paulo Coelho relives the dreams of a generation that longed for peace and challenged the established social order.
In Hippie, he tells the story of Paulo, a skinny Brazilian with a goatee, learning about himself by exploring the world.
Travelling on the ‘Death Train to Bolivia’, on to Peru, Paulo hitchhikes through Chile and Argentina and into Amsterdam. In the famous Dam Square he meets Karla, a young Dutch woman in her twenties who has been waiting to find the ideal companion to accompany her on the fabled hippie trail to Nepal. Together with their fellow travellers, they embark on a trip aboard the Magic Bus, heading across Europe and Central Asia to Kathmandu.
For everyone, the journey is transformative. For Paulo and Karla it is a life-defining love story that leads to choices that will set the course of the rest of their lives.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Drawing on his own past experiences, Coelho (The Alchemist) tells the story of a young man named Paulo exploring love, spirituality, and the world during the 1960s in this uninspired novel. Paulo, an aspiring writer born in Brazil, hitchhikes his way through Bolivia, Peru, Chile, and Argentina before deciding to head for Amsterdam, where he has heard of a new movement of love and sexual liberation. There Paulo meets Karla, and they begin the first tentative steps toward the lasting love that Karla desperately seeks. Karla, meanwhile, is planning a trip to Nepal to pursue her own spiritual liberation. After Paulo agrees to go with her, they set out on a bus with like-minded travelers and meet a variety of personalities all of whom have a story to tell and life lessons to impart leading to long tangents about life, love, and the spiritual motivations that inspired his years of traveling. Coelho never quite brings the reader in to the main characters' experiences and lives, but some of the narrative side trips are worth taking. The author's most ardent fans will enjoy this, but readers looking for an immersive tale with fully formed characters will be disappointed.
