Jigsaw on Coelho's Bio
Assignment
Paraphrase a paragraph given to your group and add more information on P. Coelho’s biography that could be found here:
Official website: http://www.paulocoelho.com
Paolo Coelho. Biography: http://www.biography.com/people/paolo-coelho-5524
Post your answers into Blog.
Group 1
The Brazilian author Paulo Coelho was born in 1947 in the city of Rio de Janeiro into a middle-class family, the son of Pedro, an engineer, and Lygia, a housewife.
At seven, he entered the Jesuit school of San Ignacio in Rio de Janeiro. Paulo came to detest the obligatory nature of religious practice. However, although he hated praying and going to mass, there were compensations. In the school's austere corridors, Paulo discovered his true vocation: to be a writer. He won his first literary prize in a school poetry competition, and his sister, Sonia, recounts how she won an essay prize by entering something that Paulo had discarded in the wastepaper bin.
Group 2
Paulo's parents had very different plans for their son's future. They wanted him to be an engineer and tried to stifle his desires to devote himself to literature. This aroused Paulo's spirit of rebellion, and he began routinely to flout the family rules. His father took this behavior as a sign of mental illness and, when Paulo was seventeen, he twice had him committed to a psychiatric hospital.
Shortly after this, Paulo became involved with a theatre group and began working as a journalist. In the eyes of the middle classes of the time, the theatre was a hotbed of immorality. His frightened parents put him to hospital for the third time.
Group 3
Paulo Coelho has led an extreme life. Rebelliousness defined his youth. He was a hippie. He wrote popular song lyrics for some of Brazil's famous pop music stars. Before dedicating his life completely to literature, Paulo worked as theatre director and actor, lyricist and journalist.
In 1986, Paulo Coelho walked the Road to Santiago, a medieval pilgrim's route between France and Spain. He would later describe this experience in The Pilgrimage, published in 1987. The following year, his second book The Alchemist established his worldwide fame. The book has already achieved the status of a modern classic, universally admired. Considered a timeless story, will enchant and inspire whole new readers from generations to come.
Group 4
He had a rough start as a writer: his first book Hell Archive, failed to make any kind of impact. Even The Alchemist at first, was not selling very well.
However, when the time came, people started to recognize Coelho’s impressive style and creativity. It has been reported that 65 million copies of The Alchemist has been sold so far, which makes him one of the “most sold authors in the world.”
This book also brought the author in 2008 the Guinness World Record for most translated book in the world. Translated in 67 different languages and edited in more than 150 countries, readers globally have come to like Coelho.
Group 5
Paulo Coelho and his wife, Christina Oiticica split time living in Europe and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Paulo was raised Catholic and although he attends Mass, he disagrees with the Pope on several issues, both political and social.
In 1996, Coelho founded the Paulo Coelho Institute, which provides aid to children and elderly to the United Nations.
The man behind the author loves reading, travelling, computers, internet, climbing, walking and practicing Kyudo, a form of meditative archery. Every morning, he wakes early and after a two-hour walk he shoots 24 arrows using one of his three bows.
Paraphrase a paragraph given to your group and add more information on P. Coelho’s biography that could be found here:
Official website: http://www.paulocoelho.com
Paolo Coelho. Biography: http://www.biography.com/people/paolo-coelho-5524
Post your answers into Blog.
Group 1
The Brazilian author Paulo Coelho was born in 1947 in the city of Rio de Janeiro into a middle-class family, the son of Pedro, an engineer, and Lygia, a housewife.
At seven, he entered the Jesuit school of San Ignacio in Rio de Janeiro. Paulo came to detest the obligatory nature of religious practice. However, although he hated praying and going to mass, there were compensations. In the school's austere corridors, Paulo discovered his true vocation: to be a writer. He won his first literary prize in a school poetry competition, and his sister, Sonia, recounts how she won an essay prize by entering something that Paulo had discarded in the wastepaper bin.
Group 2
Paulo's parents had very different plans for their son's future. They wanted him to be an engineer and tried to stifle his desires to devote himself to literature. This aroused Paulo's spirit of rebellion, and he began routinely to flout the family rules. His father took this behavior as a sign of mental illness and, when Paulo was seventeen, he twice had him committed to a psychiatric hospital.
Shortly after this, Paulo became involved with a theatre group and began working as a journalist. In the eyes of the middle classes of the time, the theatre was a hotbed of immorality. His frightened parents put him to hospital for the third time.
Group 3
Paulo Coelho has led an extreme life. Rebelliousness defined his youth. He was a hippie. He wrote popular song lyrics for some of Brazil's famous pop music stars. Before dedicating his life completely to literature, Paulo worked as theatre director and actor, lyricist and journalist.
In 1986, Paulo Coelho walked the Road to Santiago, a medieval pilgrim's route between France and Spain. He would later describe this experience in The Pilgrimage, published in 1987. The following year, his second book The Alchemist established his worldwide fame. The book has already achieved the status of a modern classic, universally admired. Considered a timeless story, will enchant and inspire whole new readers from generations to come.
Group 4
He had a rough start as a writer: his first book Hell Archive, failed to make any kind of impact. Even The Alchemist at first, was not selling very well.
However, when the time came, people started to recognize Coelho’s impressive style and creativity. It has been reported that 65 million copies of The Alchemist has been sold so far, which makes him one of the “most sold authors in the world.”
This book also brought the author in 2008 the Guinness World Record for most translated book in the world. Translated in 67 different languages and edited in more than 150 countries, readers globally have come to like Coelho.
Group 5
Paulo Coelho and his wife, Christina Oiticica split time living in Europe and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Paulo was raised Catholic and although he attends Mass, he disagrees with the Pope on several issues, both political and social.
In 1996, Coelho founded the Paulo Coelho Institute, which provides aid to children and elderly to the United Nations.
The man behind the author loves reading, travelling, computers, internet, climbing, walking and practicing Kyudo, a form of meditative archery. Every morning, he wakes early and after a two-hour walk he shoots 24 arrows using one of his three bows.