Aleph

A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

PAULO COELHO is the author of many international bestsellers, including The Alchemist, Eleven Minutes, and The Pilgrimage. His books have sold more than 130 million copies in 160 countries and have been translated into 72 languages. In 2007, he was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace. He lives in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

ALSO BY PAULO COELHO

The Alchemist

The Pilgrimage

The Valkyries

By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

The Fifth Mountain

Veronika Decides to Die

Warrior of the Light: A Manual

Eleven Minutes

The Zahir

The Devil and Miss Prym

The Witch of Portobello

Brida

The Winner Stands Alone

Copyright

THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK

PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

Translation copyright © 2011 by Margaret Jull Costa

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by

Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

www.aaknopf.com

Originally published in Brazil as O Aleph by Sextante, Rio de Janeiro, in 2010. Copyright © 2010 by Paulo Coelho.

Map by John Gilkes

Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Coelho, Paulo.

[Aleph. English]

Aleph / by Paulo Coelho; translated by Margaret Jull Costa.—1st American ed.

p. cm.

“This is a Borzoi book.”

eISBN: 978-0-307-95701-6

I. Costa, Margaret Jull. II. Title.

PQ9698.13.O3546A4413 2011

869.3?42—dc22 2011021088

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Jacket design by Katya Mezhibovskaya.

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Notes

1

Author’s note: Immediately after the talk, I sought out the man with the mustache. His name was Christian Dhellemmes. Afterward, we exchanged a few e-mails but never met again face-to-face. He died on July 19, 2009, in Tarbes, France.