Wenn du eine ungewöhnliche Gabe mit einer zugehörigen Berufung hast - würdest du sie für deine große Liebe aufgeben? Ein kurzer Roman über 7 Tage im Leben eines Liebespaars, das sich aus der Jugend kennt und sich die Frage stellen muss, den bisher gefassten Lebensplänen nachzugehen oder gemeinsam weiter zu leben.
Viele denkanstoßende Weisheiten über Liebe, Spiritualität, Pflichten gegenüber seiner Talente.

This book fascinated me on many levels. I didn't like the Alchemist as much as everybody hyped it up for me, but this book was great because the author talked about love on so many levels, to take the reader into a journey not into the typical love that people share, and how people perceive God. The whole idea of the feminine aspect of God is not new, I just think it's interesting how central to the story line it was as well how through it the main character rediscovered her faith.

very interesting aspects of faith were brought up in this book to question the status quo answers that have been neglected for too long. I cried at many points along the way for the decisions made, and the recognition of how deep love runs in each one of us for others and God.

I don't agree with the theology of this book but think it brings up important questions that we need to answer in different ways than just simply sticking our heads under the sand.

Perhaps a 2.5 rating is more appropriate... This book was okay. Maybe the translation wasn't great, but in general I wasn't much impressed with the style of writing. There are some beautiful passages, wonderful imagery, and insightfulness... I very much enjoyed the idea of the Virgin Mary as the feminine face of God. This isn't the first time I've experienced this idea, but it is the first time I've seen it addressed or used in an actual published work by a widely-read author. But overall, this book simply didn't touch me spiritually the way I had hoped it would. I still plan on reading at least one of his other works (I have still never read The Alchemist, and I have a beautiful special edition copy), but I'm glad to leave this one in my past and call it done.

A vapid exercise in love and moral choice.

LOVE the opening, pre-story. Coelho's writing is so tight and precise--and magical, too. Wish I could read it not in translation. I just get the feeling that all of his books are like this? Which isn't necessarily bad. But I guess we'll see! I do like his writing. And amazing that he can deal with so many ideas in such a short space. Wow!

The first half of this book reads a bit more like poetry than a novel, then the second half tightens up a bit (I'm really not a reader of poetry). So I had a little trouble staying with the story through the first half. But, eventually it did start to come together, and I do think there are some useful messages in this book. However, there are other books with similar messages which convey their meaning in a more significant way for me.

My brief comments from 2006:

It’s about this woman Pilar who meets up with a guy she was in love with during her childhood. And apparently he’s in love with her. He’s also into the cult of Mary Magdalene, faith healing etc and all they do is talk… talk about their feelings, how they feel about their feelings etc etc. It goes on and on and on until you almost loose to will the live. This mixed in with all the religion made it very much a book that just isn’t for me.

This is the first in a trilogy called "And on the Seventh Day". The second book is "Veronika Decides to Die," and the third is "The Devil and Miss Prym." You do not need to read them in order, none of the characters continue from one book to the next. They're a trilogy because each of the stories take place over the course of 1-2 weeks, and they each deal with a certain topic which are love, death and power respectively.