Manuscript Found in Accra (or How to Fight the Best Fight)

You already know how much I appreciate Paulo Coelho's writing and now you can see those are not just simple words :)

This is my review for the French Publishing House Flammarion who kindly offered to me the French edition. In a nutshell, I consider the Manuscript as good as The Alchemist, with the advantage that it does not follow an actual plot and it can be read whenever one feels that they lack courage or determination... A perfect book to gift any friend... or foe :) 

“Combats le bon combat de la foi” (1 Timothee 6:12)

Pour ceux qui lisent constamment les livres de Paulo Coelho, etre fidele aux desirs qu’on puisse avoir est un leitmotiv qui ne demande pas trop d’explications. Coelho reste fidele a son desir d’ecrire un livre tous les deux ans, un livre qui puisse changer le monde, le rendre meilleur, meme si ce desir puisse paraitre un peu desuete. Et encore une fois l’ecrivain y parvient, par des mots simples mais prestigieux, car la verite ne devrait jamais etre trop compliquee.

“Le Manuscrit retouve” est un livre qui presente les valeurs importantes que la vie nous offre a la fin d’un combat avec nous meme, avec les autres, avec les prejudges de la societe ou on vit. “Le Manuscrit” est un livre qu’on puisse relire quand le combat est trop dur, quand on doute tout autour de nous, quand tout nous semble difficile, quand on a peur de l’echec ou du changement, quand on aime mais on ne recoit pas de l’amour en echange.

“Sois toi-meme” nous dit Coelho, et “ceci devrait etre suffisant.” “Aime, parce que tout autre chose est silence.” Est-ce qu’il y a des mots plus vrais que ceux-ci? 

Murakami Day

Today, Haruki Murakami turns 64, and since I am a huge fan of his work, I thought a short post is required. Short due to the fact that I have to get back to finishing his "Kafka on the shore", a book about a boy who runs away from home, an old man that can talk with cats and... talkative cats, of course. More about the book in a future review, but for now, here are some beautiful quotes from his novels:

 “But who can say what's best? That's why you need to grab whatever chance you have of happiness where you find it, and not worry about other people too much. My experience tells me that we get no more than two or three such chances in a life time, and if we let them go, we regret it for the rest of our lives.”(Norwegian Wood)

“It's like Tolstoy said. Happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story.”(Kafka on the Shore)

“Is it possible, in the final analysis, for one human being to achieve perfect understanding of another? We can invest enormous time and energy in serious efforts to know another person, but in the end, how close can we come to that person's essence? We convince ourselves that we know the other person well, but do we really know anything important about anyone?”
(The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle)