1) The document provides a biography and summary of Paulo Coelho's novel "By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept". It discusses Coelho's life and writing career. 2) The summary then outlines the plot of the novel over 7 days in December 1993, where the main character Pilar recounts falling in love with a man while traveling with him. 3) Over the course of the week, Pilar struggles with her feelings and beliefs about love and religion as she experiences spiritual encounters alongside her partner.

1. PAULO COELHO’S
BY THE RIVER PIEDRA I SAT DOWN & WEPT
PRESENTED BY:
OSAMA M. NABI
STUDENT NUMBER:
20142519
11/5/2015

2. BIOGRAPHY
 Coelho was born in Rio in 1947.
 As a teenager he found his vocation: to be a writer.
 His parents refused the idea and when failed to suppress his desire they
thought he is mentally ill and at age of 17 was committed to a mental
institution from which he escaped for 3 times before being released at the
age of 20.
 He enrolled to the school of law and left his dream, but dropped out one year
later and lived as a hippie. He sought spiritual experiences traveling through
South America, North Africa, Mexico, and Europe and started in1960s.
 Upon his return to Brazil worked as a songwriter.
 In 1973 he joined to “The Alternative Society” an organization defending the
rights of individuals, and later on was arrested with the rest of the members
and also was kidnapped and tortured by paramilitaries.
 He had an encounter with a stranger first in a vision and two months later
met him in a café in Amsterdam, the stranger suggested to him that he
should return to Catholicism and study the benign study of magic and
encouraged him to walk the Road to Santiago “ the medieval pilgrim’s route”
in northwestern Spain.
 this was turning point in his life and a year after finishing the pilgrimage he
wrote “The Pilgrimage”.

4.  The following year he wrote “ The Alchemist” which the first
edition of it sold only 900 copies and decided not to reprint.
 He found another publishing house and with the publication of
his next novel “Brida” which received a lot of attention in the
press, his books “The Alchemist” and “The Pilgrimage”
appeared on the best sellers lists.
 65 million of “The Alchemist” were sold, it is one of the best-
selling books in Brazilian history, and has been translated into
80different languages
 Won the Guinness World Record for most translated book by a
living author.
 He has sold 190 million copies worldwide and is the all-time
bestselling Portuguese language author.
 He published 33 books and the most recent of his works is the
“Adultery” novel, 2014.
 He is still alive

8. GENERAL INFO. ABOUT THE NOVEL AND THE
CONTENT.
 It was bublished in 1994.
 It is the first part of Coelho’s trilogy “And on the
Seventh Day” The other two parts are “Veronika
Decides to Die” and “The Devil and Miss Prym”.
 The trilogy (the book) is “A week in the life of
ordinary people, all of whom find themselves
suddenly confronted by love, death and power.

9. THE CONTENT
 Author’s note
 Pillar sitting on the side of the river of Piedra
narrating the events of her story which happened in
the course of one week (7)days in 1993.
 Saturday, December 4, 1993
 Sunday, December 5, 1993
 Monday, December 6, 1993
 Tuesday, December 7, 1993
 Wednesday, December 8, 1993
 Thursday, December 9, 1993
 Friday, December 10, 1993
 Epilogue

11. EXPOSITION
 Authors' note and the story of the Spanish missionary.
 Pilar Writing her story on the bank of river Piedra, she recounts her youth
love and what happened to her in the course of one week.
 She travels from Zaragoza to Madrid for attending her friend’s lecture.
DECEMBER 4 (RISING ACTIONS )
 Pilar attends the lecture and listens to the conversation of two
women sitting next to her.
 She asks her friend to drink a coffee together, but he asks her to
go with him to Bilbao as he has a conference there. (the
begging of the rising actions).
 He believes in the feminine side of God (p17)
 Brida takes her around the city and the fountain of Cybele, then
tells her that “he” loves her but Pilar doesn’t believe and leaves.

12. DECEMBER 5
 They drive to Bilbao for two hours and don’t speak to
each other.
 Pilar wants to return back to Zaragoza but he ask her to
stay for the conference. And tells her he is going up to
the mountains and wants to show her something
 He gives Pilar a small red pouch containing her old
medal.
 He announces his love to her.
 after the conference they go to dinner, Pilar doesn’t
believe in love and wants to tell him it’s not true but he
changes the subject and they get in an indirect
argument, but still she is reluctant.(p37)
 As soon as they leave the restaurant a man follows
them begging and weeping him to go with him saying “it
is my son”. But Pilar doesn’t understand and her friends
asks her to return to the hotel as he will not be back till
the down.

13. DECEMBER 6
 They drive to go to Pyrenees. Pilara asks him for the reason he wants to go there,
he says for seeing a house that she might be interested in.
 Pilar feels a struggle between her heart and mind. (p42)
 They see a village (San Martin de Unix) at the top of mountain which has chapel
and she asks him to go there, however, she doesn’t want to pray but she is
attracted by the silence of the churches. The old man prevents them from entering
the chapel but he takes her by her hand and enter. She is worried but he tells her
to stop playing a role.(p47)
 They go to a restaurant and she still feels nervous. She claims her tense is
because of the old man “bcz of love liar”, but he knows the truth and tells her he
will fight for her love. She tries to control herself by all means.(p50)
 They reach at Saint-Savin, France , and start to explore the city on foot searching
for a room to rent. Again, Pilar opposes her self to admit that she is in love. He say
a prayer but she doesn’t say amen, explaining that she doesn’t believe in religion
since she truly loved for several times but was betrayed and God didn’t listen to
her suffering.
 He tells her the story of “The Exercise of the Other” (p62)
 They find a house, take a shower, and go outside for drinking wine on the edge of
well, she talks about the danger of the falling in love but she feels the break in the
dam.(p62)
 She asks him to talk about his life since the last she saw him. He talks about his
believes and the feminine side of God and tells the story of Bernadetted 1858 and
the Immaculate Conception (p67). (Water, Fog)
 They return to the plaza and for a moment she thinks about Zaragoza, her studies
and the man she was hopping to find but all semeed far away.

14. DECEMBER 7
 As they return he goes to sleep, but she stays awake and decides to do the “exercise of
the other” and realizes that she is in love and falls a sleep with a sleep on her
lips.(p78)(81)
 In the morning they wander for hours through snow and have breakfast in a village.
 She recalls the plaza in Soria and the moment she asked him to find the medal.(p81)
 He realizes that Pilar did the “exercise of the Other” (the vampires) (p84)
 They go to mountains for hours enjoying their time, on the sun set they decide to return
back to Saint-Savin.(p85)
 Upon their return they go to a church, he tells her about his experience in search for the
truth(p88-89). She wants to share her experience but fails to express but he helps her and
finally she recovers her faith.(97)
 As they return home he asks the owner of the house for keys as they will return late. They
go to Lourdes, she again asks him about the seminary.(98-99)
 She tells him then why he waited till this day to tell her the story? He tells her about the
woman who had left her house to the seminary and his renunciation was not complete. He
told his superior about his feelings towards Pilar and the superior told him to return back to
resolve what he wants exactly.(p101)
 When they reach to a cathedral they see people gathering and one of them tells Pilar that
she is with a man who performs miracles, altogether they go to the grotto where the
visions of Mary had occurred.

15. DECEMBER 8
 The cathedral clock strikes in the midnight, everyone is saying their prayers,
however, Pilar wants to be alone with him talking about house, children, and her
strong feeling towards him.
 She sees the Charismatics (p106) and different religious and spiritual rituals, she
sees people speaking in tongues “ the language of angels” as she herself tries to
imitate them.
 After the ritual are finished they return to Saint-Savin.
 When she wakes up in the morning she finds out he has left, she thinks he
abandoned her and “the Other’ appears again within her (p119), but soon she finds
a note left by him telling her he has gone to the seminary and will be back. She
calms down and promises not to talk to “the Other” again.
 She realizes that she has the key of the house and decides to go to see it. As she
wants to get in some one calls her in her name, he turns to be a priest, he wanted
to see them but Pilar tells him that her friend went to seminary, he tells her that he
is not and asks her to go with him as he knows where he is.
 On their way they go to a woman’s house, she tells them that “The young man has
cured her husband”, Pilar remembers what happened in Bilbao and Madrid .Pilar
blames herself, she believes that she is keeping him away from doing
miracles.(p134)
 On the way the “padre” tells many stories to Pilar which implies the dangers of the
way her friend is taking (p145). As they reach to the mountain he attempts to
convince her to go to him, but she refuses, the “padre” tells her he knows that he is
making his decision and she might lose him forever. She refuses to go to him and
returns back to Saint-Savin and arrives by night, finding her friend waiting for her.

16.  As they go out from Saint-Savin they stop in a restaurant near
San Martin de Unix. Pilar senses his fear from the rejection he
might get from her. She takes a glass to the edge of the table
and asks him to break it.(p157)
 Here the ice breaks between them.

17. DECEMBER 9
 In the morning as they wake up, Pilar refuses to return to
Zaragoza since she doesn’t want to return to her old life. She
suggests to go to the monastery of Piedra.
 Pilar reminisces her childhood when she sees the ruins of the
monastery and recalls about its historical events.
 She explains her ideology about adventures. (p169)
 They spend all afternoon along the canyon, they arrive to the
largest waterfall of the Piedra river called “Horses Tail” which it
concealed a grotto.
 They go in a tunnel descending to the cavern, there he
reveals to her how he has developed his gift of curing while
his four years of stay in the seminary and how he saw the face
of the great mother in his room one night(p176), but eventually
when he found her he couldn’t cause her suffer more.
 He tells her that the day before he didn’t went to seminary but
went to converse with the Great Mother to give up his gift and
will follow her to Zaragoza.(p180) (Climax)
 Pilar gets very disappointed and climbs the tunnel getting out
of the grotto.

18. DECEMBER 10 (FALLING ACTIONS)
 She gets out of the tunnel and it is midnight, she
walks randomly as she wants to return back to
Zaragoza but she can’t find a ride, thus she returns
back to the garden of monastery.
 She sleeps onthe frozen bare ground of the garden
and roughly freezing to death.
 She remembers her mother’s story and the
story.(p183)
 A man saves her and takes her to an old convent
where a woman takes care of her, there she recalls
the funeral they saw the day before.
 The woman gives her a pen and paper and tells her
to write everything on it and to through it into the
river since the legend says everything falls into the
river changes to stones.(p187)

19. EPILOGUE (RESOLUTION)
 She stays there for many days going to the river writing her story.
 On morning he arrives and tells her that he searched for her everywhere
but couldn’t find her.
 They reunite again and the story ends as he recites a psalm.(p190-194)
CHARACTERS
• Characters are dynamic and flat
• Pilar and her beloved are the protagonist
• The “Other” is the antagonist

20.  Point of View: The book is written in the first person
through the point of view of Pilar. Throughout the book,
the reader knows what she is feeling, thinking, and how
she is blind to her own logic. She contradicts herself
many times, showing the reader that she is going through
a lot of turmoil and does not know how to handle herself.
Whenever Pilar faces a new challenge, she approaches it
very cautiously at first. She teeters back and forth,
showing how she is fighting her heart and her mind.
Then, as the book progresses and she is getting better
and suppressing her negativity, the reader can see her
flourish.

21.  Themes:
 Love
 Transformation
 Surrender
 Religion
 Language:
 Coelho uses simple language to convey deep
notions.
 There are allusions to religious figures, history and
other literary works and names.

22. Thank you for your
attention ^_^