Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho

Synopsis from www.goodreads.com

Eleven Minutes is 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. 

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.

My Comments :

I like to thank King Hua for giving me this copy of Paulo Coelho book when I mentioned that I wish to read more of his works.

Yea, am not a novice in his work. Have read a few of his book and the one I like a lot was The Witch of Portebello. It certainly "bewitched" me

As the synopsis mentioned, this is a story of self-discovery.

This is a hard book for me to read as I tend to stop and ponder how changes happens. Change does not happens overnight. It was amazing "watching" Maria breaking the boundary which she had set one by one ; the heart break...the "what if" and lastly the choice.

Many had commented on the ending. Has the author been pressured into writing the ending to please the readers? Oh well, I guess it would be up to you to comment whether you like the ending or not.

For me, this has been the perfect read.