"One of Coelho's strongest."-- Kirkus Reviews "The book casts a curiously sweet spell."-- Entertainment Weekly From the author of beloved international bestseller The Alchemist , a daring novel that explores the sacred nature of sex and love and invites us to confront our own prejudices and demons. Eleven Minutes tells 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, yet ends up working as a prostitute. In Geneva, 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 must 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 true love.

"Sensual . [An] adults-only fairly tale."-- Washington Post "[This] Brazilian wizard makes books disappear from stores."-- The New York Times.