The Valkyries

Valkyries: The nymphs at Wotan’s palace. Messengers of the Gods, they led heroes to their death - and then to paradise.

This time Paulo Coelho brings us on a forty-day quest into the starkly beautiful and sometimes dangerous Mojave Desert, Paulo and his wife, Cristina encounter the Valkyries, strange warrior women who travel the desert on motorcycles.

In this book, Paulo reveals details from his personal life. Paulo tells in a poignant way how his wife, Cristina, facing him as a husband. It tells here that Paulo like to quit working (a mania for leaving everything behind), busy with his own thoughts and Cristina had never gotten used to his life, taking off suddenly, looking for sacred pathways, swords, conversing with angels, doing everything possible to move further along the path to magic (“I should have married an engineer instead”, she said to herself). Never thought it could be quite difficult to marry Coelho.

As usual, Coelho’s writing is so rich. Wise word spread all over this book. Make me hold my breath for a while, so stunning with the power of his words.

I excerpt some quotes here:

“God is love, generosity and forgiveness; if we believe in this, we will never allow our weaknesses to paralyze us.”

“We are not alone. The world is changing and we are a part of the transformation. The angels guide us and protect us. Despite all the injustice in the world and despite the things that happen to us that we feel we don’t deserve and despite the fact that we sometimes feel incapable of changing what is wrong with people and with the world, love is even stronger and it will help us to grow. Only then will we be able to understand the stars and miracles.”