Harper, April 2009
Internationally bestselling author Paulo Coelho's latest novel, The Winner Stands Alone, is like his bestselling The Alchemist, but with a murderer on the loose. In this psychological thriller, the action takes place during twenty-four hours at the Cannes Film Festival, where supermodels, film producers, and fashionistas are all vying for their fifteen minutes of fame. And one man is there to thwart that moment in the spotlight.
Also in Cannes is a Russian communications mogul named Igor who kills at random. He suffocates a street vendor on a park bench by employing the Russian martial art of Sambo, and he shoots a film distributor with a poison needle. Igor's wealth gives him access to the curare he puts on the needle's tip and to other specialized weapons such as the hermetically sealed envelope filled with hydrogen cyanide he passes along to an unsuspecting recipient.
Internationally bestselling author Paulo Coelho's latest novel, The Winner Stands Alone, is like his bestselling The Alchemist, but with a murderer on the loose. In this psychological thriller, the action takes place during twenty-four hours at the Cannes Film Festival, where supermodels, film producers, and fashionistas are all vying for their fifteen minutes of fame. And one man is there to thwart that moment in the spotlight.
Also in Cannes is a Russian communications mogul named Igor who kills at random. He suffocates a street vendor on a park bench by employing the Russian martial art of Sambo, and he shoots a film distributor with a poison needle. Igor's wealth gives him access to the curare he puts on the needle's tip and to other specialized weapons such as the hermetically sealed envelope filled with hydrogen cyanide he passes along to an unsuspecting recipient.
Igor, who seems to confuse Good and Evil, thinks that his actions will help him win back the love of his ex-wife Ewa, who runs the most successful haute-couture shop in Moscow. Ewa, of course, is in Cannes for the occasion. Igor sends Ewa cryptic text messages each time he takes a life, but she is either in denial about what he's doing or she's too wrapped up in her new marriage to a clothing designer to do anything to stop him.
The drama surrounding Igor's killings fuels this book's plot, but The Winner Stands Alone is also a story about several other characters trying to make their way into the Superclass, Coelho's term for people of power. "The Superclass," he says, "rules the world; their arguments are subtle, their voices soft, their smiles discreet, but their decisions are final." In Cannes, the Superclass is fueled by a culture of film, fashion, money, and fame. Those belonging to the Superclass arrive in private jets and get regular Botox injections.
Representing the various aspirations of those in Cannes include a model from Africa who has just been chosen as the face of a new fashion line and a young actress chasing after her first big break, among others. With a few twists and turns of the plot, Coelho is able to intertwine their stories with those of the Superclass and Igor's murderous rampage.
The drama surrounding Igor's killings fuels this book's plot, but The Winner Stands Alone is also a story about several other characters trying to make their way into the Superclass, Coelho's term for people of power. "The Superclass," he says, "rules the world; their arguments are subtle, their voices soft, their smiles discreet, but their decisions are final." In Cannes, the Superclass is fueled by a culture of film, fashion, money, and fame. Those belonging to the Superclass arrive in private jets and get regular Botox injections.
Representing the various aspirations of those in Cannes include a model from Africa who has just been chosen as the face of a new fashion line and a young actress chasing after her first big break, among others. With a few twists and turns of the plot, Coelho is able to intertwine their stories with those of the Superclass and Igor's murderous rampage.
On the surface, this book may sound nothing like Coelho's runaway bestseller The Alchemist, which is the story of a shepherd boy's journey to pursue a dream. However, The Winner Stands Alone examines deeper moral and spiritual questions in the way that Coelho's other books do. In this one, the Cannes Film Festival serves as a platform for an exploration of a world obsessed with celebrity and the negative consequences of an insatiable desire for fame and power. Those who love Coelho's other books for their moral and spiritual content will also enjoy this book on those levels.
The thriller aspect of this story may leave some readers wanting more. In terms of suspense, there is little, as the major elements that could have been used to create tension-the killer's identity and his motives-are revealed early on. The Winner Stands Alone is more of a foray into a killer's psyche than a whodunit-style murder mystery.
The thriller aspect of this story may leave some readers wanting more. In terms of suspense, there is little, as the major elements that could have been used to create tension-the killer's identity and his motives-are revealed early on. The Winner Stands Alone is more of a foray into a killer's psyche than a whodunit-style murder mystery.
Coelho is known for a lucid writing style and simple plot structure that encourages readers to insert themselves into his stories, but in The Winner Stands Alone, the generalizations often feel vague and overly simplistic. Coelho says, for example, of a late night in Cannes: "Every guest at every table is interested in but one thing: meeting the people with Power." Sweeping statements such as these proliferate in The Winner Stands Alone, and they distance readers from the book's subject matter rather than connect them to it.
Coelho says in the introduction to The Winner Stands Alone: "When I decided to take a snapshot of my own times, I wrote this book." The author therefore intends for this book to present an image of the world from his perspective, but whether or not it serves as an accurate snapshot remains open for debate.
Coelho says in the introduction to The Winner Stands Alone: "When I decided to take a snapshot of my own times, I wrote this book." The author therefore intends for this book to present an image of the world from his perspective, but whether or not it serves as an accurate snapshot remains open for debate.
