A Warrior's Life Part 16

AUTHOR'S NOTE

This book started life at the beginning of 2005 at Saint-Exupery airport, in Lyons, in the south of France, when I met Paulo Coelho for the first time. As a journalist, I was used to accompanying international names and stars and imagined I would find him surrounded by bodyguards, secretaries and a.s.sistants. To my surprise, the man with whom I would spend much of the following three years turned up alone, with a rucksack on his back and dragging a small suitcase on wheels. It was there that the excavation began that would reveal one of the most extraordinary individuals I have ever worked with.

After six weeks at his side, I returned to Brazil. Since the entire course of his life has revolved around Rio, I moved there and spent eight months following the trails left by the writer. I looked for Paulo Coelho everywhere and probed behind the events that had left so many scars. I searched for him in the dark alleys of the roughest areas of Copacabana, among the records of the insane and the ruins of what had once been Dr Eiras's clinic, in the dangerous world of drugs, in files dating from the years of political repression in Brazil, in satanism, in mysterious secret societies, in his partners.h.i.+p with Raul Seixas, in his family and his genealogy. I talked to friends and those who had fallen out with him, interviewed many of his ex-lovers and spent some time with his presentand, he vows, his lastpartner, the artist Christina Oiticica. I rummaged through his life, dug deep into his private affairs, read his will, studied his medications, read his bank statements, felt in his pockets and searched for the children I imagined must have resulted from his various relations.h.i.+ps and love affairs.

I won a bet with him that gave me access to a treasure that he had decided was to be burnt after his death: a trunk that held forty years of diaries, many of them recorded on ca.s.sette tapes. I spent weeks closeted in the Paulo Coelho Inst.i.tute scanning doc.u.ments, photos, old diaries and letters both received and sent. Once my time in Rio was over, I again accompanied him on trips to various corners of the earth with a recorder slung over my shoulder, listening to his nasal voice and to his comments, and watching that strange tic he has of flicking away non-existent flies from his eyes. I went with him on the road to Santiago de Compostela, I saw how moved he was on meeting a group of ordinary readers in Onati, in the Spanish Basque country and in Cairo, and I watched him being acclaimed by men in black ties and women in long dresses at banquets held in his honour in Paris and Hamburg.

I put together the pieces left behind by Paulo Coelho throughout his sixty years, and the result is this book. Although the responsibility for everything written here is mine alone, I must acknowledge the help of the dozens of people who helped me along the way. Firstly, my old friend Wagner Homem. I asked him to apply his expertise to organizing the vast quant.i.ty of data, interviews and doc.u.ments that I acc.u.mulated during three years of research. He ended up moving into my house, where for ten uninterrupted months he worked on that, as well as reading and re-reading the final text and making valuable suggestions for improving it. My grat.i.tude must also go to two brothers: one putative, Ricardo Setti, who has long been in charge of quality control with regard to my books and whose talent has saved me at the most difficult moments, and one real, Reinaldo Morais, who moved heaven and earth to make sure that the book reached its final destination safely.

I must also thank all those who generously collaborated on this book, the many people I interviewed and the researchers, journalists, trainees and stringers who found and interviewed the individuals who have given life, colour and human warmth to this story. These are: Adriana Negreiros, Afonso Borges, Aldo Bocchini Neto, Alfonso Molinero, Ana Carolina da Motta, Ana Paula Granello, Antonio Carlos Monteiro de Castro, Armando Antenore, Armando Perigo, The a.s.sociation of Old Boys of the St Ignatius College, aurea Soares de Oliveira, aureo Sato, Beatriz de Medeiros de Souza, Belina Antunes, Carina Gomes, Carlos Augusto Setti, Carlos Heitor Cony, Carlos Lima, Celia Valente, Claudio Humberto Rosa e Silva, Cesar Polcino Milies, Dasha Balashova, Denis Kuck, Devanir Barbosa Paes, Diego de Souza Martins, Eliane Lobato, Eric Nepomuceno, Evanise dos Santos, Fernando Eichenberg, Firmeza Ribeiro dos Santos, Francisco Cordeiro, Frederic Bonomelli, Gemma Capdevila, Herve Louit, Hugo Carlo Batista Ramos, Ibare Dantas, Ines Garconi, Inst.i.tuto Paulo Coelho and Sant Jordi a.s.sociados, Ivan Luiz de Oliveira, Ivone Ka.s.su, Joaquim Ferreira dos Santos, Joca do Som, Jose Antonio Martinuzzo, Juliana Perigo, Klecius Henrique, Leonardo Oiticica, Lourival Sant'Anna, Lucia Haddad, Luciana Amorim, Luciana Franzolin, Luiz Cordeiro Mergulho, Lyra Netto, Marcio Jose Domingues Pacheco, Marcio Valente, Marilia Cajaiba, Mario Magalhes, Mario Prata, Marisilda Valente, Mariza Romero, Marizilda de Castro Figueiredo, Pascoal Soto, Raphael Cardoso, Ricardo Hofstetter, Ricardo Schwab, Roberto Viana, Rodrigo Pereira Freire, Samantha Quadrat, Silvia Ebens, Silvio Essinger, Sylvio Pa.s.sos, Talles Rodrigues Alves, Tatiana Marinho, Tatiane Rangel, Veronique Surrel, Vicente Paim and Wilson Moherdaui.

Finally, I would like to thank the hundreds of people from more than thirty countries who sent data, doc.u.ments and photos to the website http://www.cpc.com.br/paulocoelho/, which was created in order to receive such contributions, some of whom supplied important information that I have used in this book.

Fernando Morais Ilhabela, March 2008

THOSE INTERVIEWED FOR THIS BOOK.

Acacio Paz Afonso Galvo Alan Clarke Amapola Rios Andre Midani Andrea Cals Antonio Carlos Austregesilo de Athayde Antonio Carlos 'Kakiko' Dias Antonio Claudio de Lima Vieira Antonio Ovidio Clement Fajardo Antonio Walter Sena, Jr. ('Toninho Buda') Arash Hejazi Ariovaldo Bonas Arnaldo Niskier Arnold Bruver, Jr.

Artur da Tavola Basia Stepien Beatriz Vallandro Cecilia Bolocco Cecilia Mac Dowell Chico Castro Silva Christina Oiticica Cristina Lacerda Darc Costa Dede Conte Eduardo Jardim de Moraes elide 'Dede' Conte Ernesto Emanuelle Mandarino Eugenio Mohallen Fabiola Fracarolli Fernando Bicudo Frederic Beigbeder Frederic Morel Genevieve Phalipou Gilles Haeri Gloria Albues Guy Jorge Ruffier Helio Campos Mello Henrique Caban Hildegard Angel Hildebrando Goes Filho Ilma Fontes indio do Brasil Lemes Isabela Maltarolli Ivan Junqueira Jerry Adriani Joel Macedo Jorge Luiz Costa Ramos Jorge Mouro Jose Antonio Mendonca Neto Jose Antonio 'Pepe' Dominguez Jose Mario Pereira Jose Reinaldo Rios de Magalhes Jose Wilker Julles Haeri Kika Seixas Leda Vieira de Azevedo Lizia Azevedo Marcelo Nova Marcia Faria Lima Marcia Nascimento Marcos Medeiros Bastos Marcos Mutti Marcos Paragua.s.su Arruda Camara Maria Cecilia Duarte Arraes de Alencar Maria Eugenia Stein Marie Christine Espagnac Marilu Carvalho Mario Sabino Maristela Bairros Mauricio Mandarino Michele Conte Milton Temer Monica Antunes Nelly Canellas Branco Nelson Liano, Jr Nelson Motta Orietta Paz Patrice Hoffman Patricia Martin Paula Braconnot Paulo Roberto Rocco Pedro Queima Coelho de Souza Regina Bilac Pinto Renato Menescal Renato Pacca Ricardo Sabanes Rita Lee Roberto Menescal Rodrigo Meinberg Rosana Fiengo Serge Phalipou Sidney Magal Silvio Ferraz Soizik Molkhou Sonia Maria Coelho de Souza Stella Paula Costa Vera Prnjatovic Richter Ze Rodrix Zeca Araujo Zuenir Ventura PHOTOGRAPHIC ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.

Every effort has been made to ensure the origin and owners.h.i.+p of the photos used in this book. This was not always possible, particularly in the case of photos obtained from family collections or those of friends of Paulo Coelho. I should be happy to give credit to the photographers should they come forward.

About the Author.

FERNANDO MORAIS is one of the most important and preeminent journalists in South America and is widely credited with making the biography a popular genre in Brazil. He is also a well-known politician and activist whose articles have stirred much debate in both his native country and South America in general. He lives in So Paulo. is one of the most important and preeminent journalists in South America and is widely credited with making the biography a popular genre in Brazil. He is also a well-known politician and activist whose articles have stirred much debate in both his native country and South America in general. He lives in So Paulo.

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