Book Review: Aleph By Paulo Coelho
While I was having a conversation with my sage about my quest to understand the process of reincarnation. She paused and held her chin thoughtfully, as she usually does when an interesting thought crosses her mind.
“Have you read Aleph?” She asked.
“Aleph?” I responded to her question with a question as a typical Nigerian.
“Yes. Aleph. It was written by Paulo Cohelo. I know you have read “The Alchemist” but this is an interesting book that I think will resonate with you.”
Since I already love Paulo’s “The Alchemist” and included it in my annual reads, she did not need to convince me to read this book. My fingers were quick to run a Google search to find out more. A Google search for Aleph showed that it was the first letter in Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic language. I had to add the author’s name before I found a summary that drew me into the next book that I read.
The next week took me down the path of unraveling the thoughts behind the words in this captivating book that had a theme around self-discovery, reincarnation, and spiritual awakening. According to the story, The Aleph is a point where you can have access to your previous lives and go through the emotions with someone you loved in a previous life or are open to the possibility of the spiritual journey.
Paulo was on a physical journey with a young lady called Hilal who was also lost in her life and was resolved that he would assist her in finding answers to her questions. Little did she know that he needed her more. She was one of the 8 ladies that he had betrayed in his previous life. She loved him but he did not dare to save her from a terrible death.
The book was a perfect wrap of the author using his personal stories and spiritual journey to shed light on the concept of reincarnation. He had interactions with his spiritual mentor, J, his conversations with Yao who was his interpreter, and Hilal, a gifted violinist who felt a huge distress in her soul and enabled him to tap into his previous life.
The book highlighted a few things that I believe in :
- The fact that there are spirits that influence creatives when they are creating (djinni are the root for the word genius) He mentioned that his wife seemed to enter some type of trance when working on a new painting.
- Religion has evolved and no longer carries the same frequency that it is meant to. This is due to the political and selfish interests in how religion shaped society.
- There is reincarnation and it is difficult to have access to the previous lives.
My bane with the book was that the protagonist was hinged on only one of his lifetimes and needed to clear out the guilt that he felt due to his lack of courage to make a stand to save the woman he loved.
What I loved was the new real-world information that was sprinkled around the book. I spent some time researching and reading more about these facts. Some that caught my attention were:
- The Trans-Siberian Railroad, is the longest single rail system in the world, stretching 5,771 miles (9,288 km) across Russia between Moscow and Vladivostok.
- Lake Baikal, the world’s oldest and deepest freshwater lake
- Vladimir Mayakovsk, the extremely brilliant Russian-Soviet poet and playwright committed suicide when he could not bear not being able to be with his publisher's wife.
- How Hanibal’s lack of destruction of Rome when he had the chance led to his people and city being wiped out from history.
If you are interested in a captivating book, Coelho provides you with a compelling and introspective exploration of the interconnectedness of lives and the eternal nature of the soul.
“Aleph” stands as a testament to his ability to use his journey as a beacon to illuminate profound spiritual concepts, making it a thought-provoking and enlightening read.
If you want to read an interesting short story about reincarnation, you can read The Egg. My colleague, Chris shared this with me and it is an absolutely interesting read.
