Paulo Coelho - The Winner Stands Alone

Paulo

Coelho

The Winner

Stands Alone

Translated from the Portuguese by

Margaret Jull Costa

For N.D.P.

who came down to Earth in order to show us the path of the Good Fight

O Mary conceived without sin,

pray for those who turn to you.

Amen.

And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment.

Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls? And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?

Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Luke 12:22-27

Whoever you are holding me now in hand,

Without one thing all will be useless,

I give you fair warning before you attempt me further,

I am not what you supposed, but far different.

Who is he that would become my follower?

Who would sign himself a candidate for my affections?

The way is suspicious, the result uncertain, perhaps destructive.

You would have to give up all else, I alone would expect to be your sole and exclusive standard,

Your novitiate would even then be long and exhausting,

The whole past theory of your life and all conformity to the lives around you would have to be abandon'd,

Therefore release me now before troubling yourself any further, let go your hand from my shoulders,

Put me down and depart on your way.

Wait Whitman: Leaves of Grass

Epigraph O Mary conceived without sin, pray for those who turn to you. Amen.

Preface Preface One of the recurrent themes in my books has been the importance of paying the price for following your dreams. But to what extent can our dreams be manipulated? During the past few decades, we have lived in a culture that has privileged fame, money and power. Many of us have been led to believe that these were the only values worth pursuing, unaware that the real, behind-the-scenes manipulators remain anonymous. These manipulators understand that the most effective power is the kind that goes unnoticed by anyone - until it is too late, and we are trapped. This book is about that trap. In The Winner Stands Alone, three of the four main characters allow their dreams to be manipulated: Igor, a Russian millionaire, who believes that killing is acceptable if it is done for a good reason, such as alleviating human suffering or getting back the woman he loves. Hamid, a fashion magnate, who started out with the best of intentions only to be caught up in the very system he was trying to use. Gabriela, who - like most people today - is convinced that fame is an end in itself, the ultimate reward in a world that considers celebrity to be the supreme achievement. This is not a thriller, but a stark portrait of where we are now. Paulo Coelho

Chapter 1 - 3.17 a.m.

Chapter 2 - 7.22 a.m.

Chapter 3 - 11.00 a.m.

Chapter 4 - 11.45 a.m.

Chapter 5 - 12.26 p.m.

Chapter 6 - 12.44 p.m.

Chapter 7 - 12.53 p.m.

Chapter 8 - 1.19 p.m.

Chapter 9 - 1.28 p.m.

Chapter 10 - 1.37 p.m.

Chapter 11 - 1.46 p.m.

Chapter 12 - 1.55 p.m.

Chapter 13 - 3.44 p.m.

Chapter 14 - 4.07 p.m.

Chapter 15 - 4.16 p.m.

Chapter 16 - 4.34 p.m.

Chapter 17 - 4.43 p.m.

Chapter 18 - 4.52 p.m.

Chapter 19 - 5.06 p.m.

Chapter 20 - 5.15 p.m.

Chapter 21 - 6.50 p.m.

Chapter 22 - 7.31 p.m.

Chapter 23 - 7.40 p.m.

Chapter 24 - 8.12 p.m.

Chapter 25 - 8.21 p.m.

Chapter 26 - 9.02 p.m.

Chapter 27 - 9.11 p.m.

Chapter 28 - 9.20 p.m.

Chapter 29 - 10.17 p.m.

Chapter 30 - 10.55 p.m.

Chapter 31 - 11.11 p.m.

Chapter 32 - 1.55 a.m.

Acknowledgements

Copyright

About the Publisher

One of the recurrent themes in my books has been the importance of paying the price for following your dreams. But to what extent can our dreams be manipulated? During the past few decades, we have lived in a culture that has privileged fame, money and power. Many of us have been led to believe that these were the only values worth pursuing, unaware that the real, behind-the-scenes manipulators remain anonymous. These manipulators understand that the most effective power is the kind that goes unnoticed by anyone - until it is too late, and we are trapped. This book is about that trap.

In The Winner Stands Alone, three of the four main characters allow their dreams to be manipulated:

Igor, a Russian millionaire, who believes that killing is acceptable if it is done for a good reason, such as alleviating human suffering or getting back the woman he loves.

Hamid, a fashion magnate, who started out with the best of intentions only to be caught up in the very system he was trying to use.

Gabriela, who - like most people today - is convinced that fame is an end in itself, the ultimate reward in a world that considers celebrity to be the supreme achievement.

This is not a thriller, but a stark portrait of where we are now.

Paulo Coelho

The Beretta P×4 compact pistol is slightly larger than a mobile phone, weighs around 700 grams and can fire ten shots. Small, light, invisible when carried in a pocket, its small calibre has one enormous advantage: instead of passing through the victim's body, the bullet hits bones and smashes everything in its path.

Obviously the chances of surviving a shot of that calibre are fairly high; there are thousands of cases in which no vital artery was severed and the victim had time to react and disarm his attacker. However, if the person firing the pistol is experienced enough, he can opt either for a quick death - by aiming at the point between the eyes or at the heart - or a slower one - by placing the barrel at a certain angle close to the ribs and squeezing the trigger. The person shot takes a while to realise that he has been mortally wounded and tries to fight back, run away or call for help. The great advantage of this is that the victim has time to see his killer's face while his strength ebbs slowly away and he falls to the ground, with little external loss of blood, still not fully understanding why this is happening to him.

It is far from being the ideal weapon for experts. ‘Nice and light - in a lady's handbag. No stopping power though’, someone in the British Secret Service tells James Bond in the first film in the series, meanwhile confiscating Bond's old pistol and handing him a new model. However, that advice applied only to professionals, and for what he now had in mind it was perfect.

He had bought the Beretta on the black market so that it would be impossible to trace. There are five bullets in the magazine, although he intends to use only one, the tip of which he has marked with an ‘X’, using a nail file. That way, when it's fired and hits something solid, it will break into four pieces.