The Devil and Miss Prym - Paulo Coehlo

Paulo Coelho's books have sold millions and millions of copies worldwide. Coehlo is from Brazil, and his novels are translated from Portuguese. I read an article once about Coelho's incredible fame. The writer portrayed Coehlho as almost a cult leader. Another Brazilian writer commented that something must be getting changed in the translation, because Coehlo's books simply wasn't that impressive in it native language. I thought that was quite funny, and decided to read a Coelho novel to see for myself. The Devil and Miss Prym was published in 2000, but it reads like a morality tale from the 19th century. The basic premise is that a stranger comes to a small town. He speaks to Miss Prym, the local barmaid and tells her his plan. He wishes to offer the villagers enough gold to improve their lot for generations. All they have to do is murder one of their own. How the villagers choose will answer for the stranger whether people are basically good or basically evil. Miss Prym struggles with whether to tell the other villagers of the deal. She knows where some of the gold is buried, and is also tempted to just dig it up and flee. She hopes the villagers will do the right thing, but she has no way of knowing how the mob mentality will play out. The novel is simply written, but suspenseful. Some of the good/evil; devil/angel discussions and metaphors are a bit drawn out, but all in all I enjoyed this book as a very basic story about a very complicated battle.