The witch of Portobello-a review

I simply could not resist giving a review on this book.


The Witch of Portobello is a novel written by Paul Coelho of The Alchemist fame. Following the trend of his earlier works, this book too is aimed at discovering the hidden self. But unlike his earlier works which were presented to the reader as stories, the witch of Portobello is painted as a biography of Athena.

The book, right from the title, the cover design and the flow of contents captures the attention of the reader. Although the book seems to look a little heavy owing to the 300+ pages, it seems impossible to stop reading once you start. The language is simple but substantially rich to reach out to a common man. The story no doubt, catapults the reader to one’s own realm of wildest imagination.

The story of Athena is narrated to the reader by series of people who have known Athena personally. Now dead, a gypsy born, orphaned at birth, adopted and raised by loving parents, Athena is in constant search of harmony. She lives a life experimenting with several truths, discovering more about herself and teaching others to be in unison with the nature.

As the story unfolds, the reader is shown several dimensions of Athena’s personality and given a choice to decide for himself, ‘Who was Athena?”. But, with each narration, it only gets more interesting and confusing as the story is painted very cleverly by the author. The narration alternates between Athena-the witch and Athena-in pursuit of peace and keeps the reader glued till the very end. At several stages the reader is forced to stop, think and reflect for a moment about Athena and how much I share in common with her.

The beauty of the whole narration lay in the fact that a reader can easily relate to the people involved, happenings described and feelings undergone. Each reader may interpret the story differently as it touches home but it is very definitely has many hidden surprises for each reader.

The book is a worthy read on a lazy rainy day.