All you need is love… the same a mother gives to a child, the same which two lovers explore on a dark winter evening, the same which you experience when your best friend tells you how beautiful you look, even though you haven’t slept for three nights… There wouldn’t be life without love
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I saw it in a bookstore accidentally…not too thick with a bright colored cover…”By The River Piedra I Sat Down And Wept”. Took it in my hand & couldn’t put back on the shelf. “
By The River Piedra I Sat Down And Wept” is a book written by Paolo Coelho, well known storyteller, author of many bestsellers (worth mentioning is “The Alchemist”, “Fifth Mountain” and “Veronica Decides To Die”). Knowing his earlier books I was hoping that this one is going to be as unique as the others… I wasn’t wrong … The story is narrated by a girl called Pilar – a girl who describes the most important week in her life, which she have spent with her childhood friend.
One day she decides to leave the town, which she has lived in, for the whole of her life. She is being told that a man, whom she used to share her childhood with, will be in the neighborhood, so she leaves everything behind and journeys there… When she sees him after over 10 years all her memories come back too her, she realizes that he is much closer to her heart than she suspected…
But there are many obstacles for her to overcome, life isn’t a bed of roses neither for her, nor for him. The man is very spiritual, he received a gift from God, he’s able to cure people… He wanted to serve God, he even has spent almost 4 years in a seminary, but memories about her didn’t allow him to become a priest.
The whole book is about a battle between love to God and to a woman…Love which is unbreakable…love, which is thicker than blood… Coelho shows in the eyes of the man, the feminine side of God. Thanks to this “Goddess” Pilar discovers herself, leaves her fears behind and heads forward…
The story is full of inner meanings, has some kind of magic in it, keeps you in a blissful state, and although I felt a bit of anxiety while reading it, it made me think about life, love and sharing it with others… While reading this masterpiece I discovered some kind of faith in me, about which I had no idea that it existed...
Not without a reason Coelho has won numerous prestigious awards, this writer is able to show the most hidden thoughts, he reveals some truths which will be universal till the human kind exists…
I loved this novel and with a hand on my heart I can recommend it to anybody, no matter if you are a religious and spiritual person or just a lost soul in the universe… the only thing you have to do is listen to your heart, and follow it. Some paths will show up unexpectedly, just like the one that made me write this review…