The Winner Stands Alone

“One of the recurrent themes in my books is the importance of paying a price for your dreams. But to what extent can our dreams be manipulated? For the past few decades, we have lived in a culture that privileged fame, money, power – and most people were led to believe that these were the real values that they were to pursue.

What we don’t know is that, behind the scenes, the real manipulators remain anonymous. They understand that the most effective power is the one that nobody can notice – until it is too late, and you are trapped. The Winner Stands Alone is about this trap.”

– Paulo Coelho, in his latest novel The Winner Stands Alone

[Reproduced from the Foreword of The Winner Stands Alone by Paulo Coelho; translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa; HarperCollinsPublishers 2009.]