Book review “Maktub”: Even before help

Brazilian author Paulo Coelho has sold more copies of his books than he has followers on Facebook: 320 million versus 30 million. Perhaps because he encourages readers to copy his books and sometimes even uploads his work online. Readers say he has changed their lives, touched their souls and helped them find happiness. To such an extent that he far exceeds the reach of contemporary superstars of self-help literature such as Jay Shetty, Tim Ferriss and Ali Abdaal. But Coelho is more than just a self-help guru. He is a novelist who creates flesh-and-blood characters, storylines and resolutions that offer the reader closure. The fictional shell he puts around his inspirational messages is often the key ingredient in making them palatable.

Maktub, however, deviates from this format. It first appeared in Portuguese in 1994 as a compilation of his columns for a Brazilian newspaper, and is now available to English readers in a new translation by Margaret Jull Costa. Marketed as an “indispensable supplement” to The Alchemist, the compendium contains parables that “offer an enlightened way to see life and the lives of our fellow human beings around the world in new ways.”

The Arabic title means fate; the literal translation would be “it is written.” The pursuit of one’s own destiny is a recurring theme in Coelho’s books, although for him fate is not a preordained event. In a parable in Maktub he writes: “Life is like the walls of a mountain and fate is the cry of every human being. Whatever we do is carried into God’s heart and returned to us in the same way. God acts as an echo of our deeds.”

The book offers tips and insights to overcome everyday problems. To stop negative thinking, it suggests turning thoughts into physical pain, for example by pressing the index fingernail into the thumb. To correct bad habits, it recommends making them conscious. One man who could not resist thumb sucking was instructed by his therapist to suck a different finger every day, which led him to give up the habit.

Coelho says the collection is “not a how-to book, but a sharing of experiences.” But the supposed experiences are just a flimsy cover for self-help platitudes. The problem with the genre is that it either works for you or it doesn’t. What is stupidly obvious to one person can open new doors of awareness for another. For those who have read his other works, Maktub is old inspiration in a new bottle. It is also a missed opportunity. Coelho has helped hundreds of millions of readers to self-reflect over the past four decades. One just wishes he had practiced what he preached before repeating himself in this edition of Maktub.

Maktub

By: Paulo Coelho

Publisher: Thorsons

Pages: 224

Price: Rs 499