Book Review of ‘Eleven Minutes’ by Paulo Coelho

22 January 2019 | Male Escort Melbourne

“Eleven Minutes tells the story of Maria, a young girl from a Brazilian village, whose first innocent brushes with love leave her heartbroken. At a tender age, she becomes convinced that she will never find true love, instead believing that “Love is a terrible thing that will make you suffer….” A chance meeting in Rio takes her to Geneva, where she dreams of finding fame and fortune. Instead, she ends up working as a prostitute.

In Geneva, Maria drifts further and further away from love as she develops a fascination with sex. Eventually, Maria’s despairing view of love is put to the test when she meets a handsome young painter. In this odyssey of self-discovery, Maria has to choose between pursuing a path of darkness – sexual pleasure for its own sake – or risking everything to find her own “inner light” and the possibility of sacred sex – sex in the context of love.

In this gripping and daring novel, Paulo Coelho sensitively explores the sacred nature of sex and love, and invites us to confront our own prejudices and demons and embrace our own “inner light.” “

– From the blurb of ‘Eleven Minutes,’ by Paulo Coelho

‘Eleven Minutes’ is a wonderful book, that I’ve read two or three times over the years. From the moment you start reading it, I find it’s one of those books that is hard to put down. Paulo Coelho is one of the world’s most widely read authors, renowned for his best-loved work, ‘The Alchemist,’ which I have wrote about in the past.

I’ve recently read ‘Eleven Minutes’ again, and each time it has the same powerful effect, I love it. Following Maria on her journey through life, it shows us that whatever circumstances we are given in life, we can choose how we react, and what we do with our life.

“I can either be a victim of the world, or an adventurer in search of treasure. It’s all a question of how I view my life.” 

– Maria, Paulo Coelho, Eleven Minutes

Many interesting quotes from Eleven Minutes can be found here.

This very well-written novel explores so many topics related to sex, love, life, time, taboo, culture, passion, goals, survival, self-discovery… It’s got it all.

With a lot of life philosophies, throughout the book Maria learns more about herself, and the way the world works. She keeps a diary, where she records her thoughts, which is quite interesting. Maria learns a lot about other people, sex, psychology, and even explores BDSM, and it’s history, including references to the author Marquis de Sade.

It explores a bit of the history of sex work, and Maria learns that sex work has always been around, and is essential to the world – And that even when a sex worker is seeing a client, that the sex can still be Sacred sex. This is a very interesting topic to explore.

‘Eleven Minutes’ is a book that I find touches my soul, and leaves me with a new found spirituality every time. Like most of Coelho’s work, although this is written about a topic that you wouldn’t think Paulo Coelho would write. That is, until you’ve read it, and then you just think Wow. 

I give this book a 5 out of 5 stars. Like I said, I’ve read it a few times in the past – And I’ve no doubt I’ll read it again sometime in the future.

“Really important meetings are planned by the souls long before the bodies see each other.”  

– Maria, Paulo Coelho, Eleven Minutes