This autobiographical novel is something beyond two people finding themselves kings of their kingdoms again. It isn't just a journey that Paulo Coelho took through the Trans-Siberian Railways; it is a voyage through the silent distance that separates two souls while they don't know that they have been touching each other for eternity. To understand how everything in time and space can exist in one place and moment, Aleph is what you need.
Aleph is the story of a book tour to various countries that Coelho took in 2006 when he was experiencing the pain of futility of everything he had devoted his life to. He was agonized by his spiritual stagnation. He could no longer withstand the awakening that, despite years of the quest, he couldn't - and probably would never - find peace. He was losing touch with himself, his soul. And above all, he was tormented by the thought that he would never be the king of his kingdom again. Little did he know that this impulsive trip he took through Africa, Europe, and Asia would end up uniting him with a Turkish beauty who would guide him back to his path, and towards the end of the 9289 kilometers through Russia, he would have regretted, as well as cherished, the moment when he decided to take this trip. And most importantly, this journey would have made him 'the king of his kingdom.'
This Trans-Siberian journey introduces him to the most annoying and stubborn woman he first avoids and then desires. He later finds out that it was this woman for whom he was destined to take this tedious book tour. Hilal is not only one of the eight women he had betrayed in one of his past lives; she is the woman who died because she loved him. She, along with the other seven women, haunted him throughout his present life and previous ones without him knowing why. He is adamant about finding the answer to this question in this incarnation and during this journey. The answer awaits him in a railway carriage when he experiences Aleph with Hilal. Coelho keeps his readers engaged throughout the novel by hinting at the cruelty he had meted out to the eight women. However, each hint increases the curiosity of the readers until a time comes when you have to try hard not to skip to the last page.
The setting of this novel is a train and its railway carriage where six people enjoy and bear with each other for 9289 kilometers across Russia, from Moscow to Vladivostok, in the spring of 2006. And the setting of this novel is every place on this earth during every second of past, present, and future. Its characters are Coelho, Hilal, seven women and their tormentors, a translator, a publisher, an editor, a shaman, tens of thousands of Coelho's readers, and the many men and women who have lived their lives are living their lives and will live their lives in future. To understand all this, you should read this novel more than once, as Coelho remarks: "Why did I take so long to write about this pilgrimage? Because it took me three full years to understand it."
We don't need to agree with Coelho's philosophy to like this book. Full of wisdom and spiritual insight, Aleph can show light at the end of the tunnel to even the darkest of pessimists. In a nutshell, it is an exciting book, and you won't ever regret reading it.
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