This first United States paperback of By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept comes after huge worldwide sales of the novel of faith, romance, miracles, and the importance of following the heart's true path. The inspirational tale follows Pilar, a young woman from the Spanish countryside who, sparked by the teachings of a now-mysterious man she has known and loved since childhood, leaves her graduate studies and embarks on a spiritual pilgrimage through the Pyrenees Mountains and reevaluates her life and her future. Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho, author of the international bestseller The Alchemist, is considered to be one of the most widely-read Latin American writers in the world. --

Typical of the spiritual journey nature of Coelho's books, By The River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept is a most beautiful love story about the choices some people make regarding their spiritual calling and soulmates. While I won't ruin the ending, I was nonetheless pretty surprised at the outcoming of Pilar's quest for a greater understanding of her spiritual purpose and her heart's desires. Pilar sought for freedom "from all these damned rules, from needing to find an explanation for everything, from doing only what others approve of" (p. 148).

I enjoyed this book so much that I'm planning to give new copies to a couple of friends, as gifts, who find themselves dreaming and searching for their spiritual destinies.

In the meantime, I'm sending this copy as RABCK to Fellraven in England, via her partner in Chicago, who are fans of Coelho's books. It will be accompanying The Pilgrimage bookring, but it by no means needs to continue with the bookring book. Release it to someone else who will benefit from the story. Enjoy!

Two for the price of one! An unexpected bonus :)

This book has been safely received by my partner who's working near Chicago. He is going to read it and bring it back to the UK for me to read, then it will continue as normal.

This book arrived safely back in the UK with my partner yesterday. He's currently reading it and I will when he's finished!

This is quite a difficult book to review as it's somewhat different from the other Coelho books I've read and it wasn't quite what I was expecting. It is, as gaysocialworker said in his introduction to the book above, a book about the interplay of spirituality, love and destiny and about the sacrifices and choices individuals sometimes have to make.

Coelho's books routinely call upon traditional wisdom, folk tale and esoteric and mystical strands within Christianity for their core, but this one treats in considerable depth with something which is essentially a heresy in conventional Christian terms - the Virgin Mary as a collision between the feminine face of God (one of the long-established esoteric secrets of Judeo-Christian tradition) and as The Goddess of neopagan and allied spiritualities. It took a bit of getting into until I'd worked out where he was going with his initial ideas but once I had done so I did enjoy it.

I'm going to send this on to Arwen-Galadriel in Canada as part of the bookring even though I don't have to!

Posted to Arwen-Galadriel by surface post today. Should arrive within 4 weeks.

Received this book as a surprise part of another bookring. I've actually already read it, but if I finish the other book in a reasonable amount of time I might just re-read this one. Hey it never hurts to read a book more then once!

I finished this book last night before I went to bed and will be sending it out tonight when I get home.

As for my thoughts...I enjoyed it as much this time as the first time that I read it and would still definately recommend to people. I think now that I am little older than the first time I read it I was able to get more out of it and better able to understand and value some of the lessons that Pilar learned. I will definately try to incorporate some of the lessons she learned into my life.

I just received this along with the Pilgrimage. These arrived at an opportune time for me. There are a number of things going on in my life and I think these will books will come in handy for getting in touch with my true self.

Heading back to Gaysocialworker.

I enjoyed the book even though it had a sort of sad ending, but it could not hve ended differently.

Arrived back in Texas. Thanks to all who participated in The Pilgrimage bookring!

Passed to friend Julie, in Fort Worth, a new Coelho fan... may she follow her dreams wherever they may lead her. :)