La bruja de Portobello. (The Witch of Portobello)

Carolyn Kost, Stevenson Sch. Lib., Pebble Beach, CA -- Críticas, 3/15/2007

Readers of the internationally best-selling Coelho enter his mystical universe, where the meaning and depths of existence are illuminated through engaging narrative. Here he tells the story of Sherine Khalil, also known as Athena, through the accounts of various people whose lives she touched. Born in Beirut, Athena eventually ends up in London but is never content, for happiness is too static, too pat. She strives. She seeks. As one of her contacts astutely observes, “You want to justify your life, live it in the most intense way possible.” In the effort to discover her true self, she enters trances through dance, learns the importance of “white space” through calligraphy and comes to experience unconditional love through motherhood. All of these elements converge in her devotion to the Great Mother, the immanent sacred oneness of all things. Athena’s mission becomes retrieving for the world this primal spirituality, long ago suppressed by formal religion, which brings her and her followers into direct conflict with the fundamentalist wing of Christianity. This title is highly recommended for a general audience and is likely to be quite popular among spiritual seekers.