I was heading for a 4-star rating, but the fairy tale ending lost a half star for me. But the strength and beauty of Coelho’s writing carried me away. At the outset of this book I felt it might just be the author’s attempt to write the same book with a female protagonist. I had previously read Coelho’s The Alchemist and was not enthralled. And still, I was captivated by Maria and her journey. There were several times when I thought that Coelho really doesn’t know women at all. She explores her sexuality in ways she never expected and thinks long and hard about the meaning of love and whether it really exists. She opens a bank account and saves for her eventual return to Brazil, where she plans to buy a farm for her parents. She starts going to the library and reads up on a wide variety of topics. Yes, of course, Maria winds up a prostitute and not a famous movie actress, but she comes to understand much about herself and the world. Well this went in a direction I wasn’t expecting. On a trip to Rio de Janeiro she meets a “businessman” who promises her fame and fortune in Switzerland. She works in a drapery firm, where she fends off her boss. Her first love leaves her heartbroken and she becomes convinced that she is destined to never find true love. 3.5*** Maria is a young girl form a small Brazilian town.
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