The Devil and Miss Prym

September 1, 2001
Acclaimed Brazilian author Coelho presents the third title in a trilogy that began with the novels A orillas del Rio Piedra me sent y llore (By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept, Planeta, 1998) and Veronika decide morir (Veronika Decides to Die, Planeta, 2000), both of which concern a week in the life of an ordinary person suddenly confronted with love and death. Like these two titles, Coelho's new novel reflects his professed belief that the most profound changes in individuals and in society occur in brief periods of time, as the result of extreme challenges. In this case, Coelho's fable revolves around the question of whether people will commit evil in order to gain wealth and power. After burying some gold in the forest, a visitor arrives in a small village in the Pyrenees and initiates a power struggle among the villagers by offering to give them the gold if they kill one of their own. Coelho best explains the personal crisis of the villagers through the young barmaid Chantal, who becomes the visitor's messenger and struggles with her choices and beliefs about good and evil in humankind. Coelho has been called a New Age writer for his use of allegories, moral messages, and uplifting life lessons. Although some readers might not agree with his preaching, the intriguing and fluid plot will keep them interested, just as it did in his six previous best-selling novels. Recommended for public libraries and bookstores with a New Age section. Lynn Shirey, Harvard Coll. Lib., Cambridge, MA

February 27, 2006
New to the U.S. but first published in Europe in 1992, Coelho's latest (following the bestselling The Zahir
) is an old school parable of good and evil. When a stranger enters the isolated mountain town of Viscos with the devil literally by his side, the widow Berta knows (because her deceased husband, with whom she communicates daily, tells her) that a battle for the town's souls has begun. The stranger, a former arms dealer, calls himself Carlos and proposes a wager to the town: if someone turns up murdered within a week, he'll give the town enough gold to make everyone wealthy. Carlos ensures people believe him by choosing the town bartender, the orphan Chantal Prym, as his instrument: he shows her where the gold is, confides that his wife and children have been executed by kidnapper terrorists (remember: 1992), and that he is hoping his belief that people are basically evil will be vindicated. Chantal would like nothing better than to disappear with the gold herself and thus faces her own dilemmas. Add in corrupt townspeople (including a priest), sometimes biting social commentary and, distastefully, a very heavily stereotyped recurring town legend about an Arab named Ahab, and you've got quite a little Garden of Eden potboiler. But the unsatisfying ending lets everyone off the hook and leaves questions hanging like ripe apples.

June 15, 2006
Tormented by past tragedy and now searching to understand the good and evil natures of humanity, a stranger targets the remote town of Viscos for a spiritual experiment that involves tempting the youngest resident, the discontented Chantal Prym, with gold bars to see if she will hold fast to her religious beliefs or cast all aside for monetary gain. As part of their bargain, Chantal is required by the stranger to tell the town members of the gold, which will be freely offered to revitalize their declining town if they will break a commandment and kill one of their own. This enticing proposition throws all the townfolk into a grave moral crisis. Internationally renowned Brazilian novelist Coelho completes his -And On the Seventh Day - trilogy ("By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept"; " Veronika Decides To Die") with a spiritually intricate tale told in a simple, straightforward manner that allows all to absorb and contemplate. Recommended for popular fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 3/15/05.]" -Joy St. John, Henderson Dist. P.L., NV"

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2006
Internationally acclaimed author and contemporary fabulist Coelho concludes his excellent And on the Seventh Day" " trilogy with another provocative morality tale centered on a "week in the life of ordinary people, all of whom find themselves suddenly confronted by love, death, and power." As in" By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept" (1996) and " Veronika Decides to Die " (2001)" ," the characters who populate the author's fictional village, a moribund community struggling to maintain its ever-elusive spiritual identity, are immediately thrust into the center of the timeless conflict between right and wrong when a stranger bearing 11 bars of gold and accompanied by the devil arrives in Viscos prepared to challenge the citizens of the town with an intriguing moral dilemma. Will the townsfolk succumb to temptation, confirming that man is inherently evil; or will goodness triumph over evil, proving that every human being has the capacity to make his own choices and decide his or her own destiny? These and other philosophical questions are posed by Coehlo in the same mesmerizing, lyrical style he employed in " The Alchemist" (1993)" . " A natural choice for book clubs and discussion groups. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)