I tried to like this book but couldn't get in to it. Netgalley feedback ratios demand each book is rated even if not finished, so I will give it 2 stars as it's not the author's fault.

Another classic from one of my favourite authors . As always he opens your mind, makes you think and takes a little bit of your heart along the way. A little different than some of his other books, but just as brilliant.

I had mixed feelings about this book. The writting is good and the wisdom is thought-provoking but I found it hard to keep reading it, not enjoying the central characters interactions and relationship. I thought the first third of the book was interesting but I struggled with the rest.

I do apologise but I could not get into this book at all. I made it about halfway through then had to give up. It was not what I was expecting from the blurb.

I used to read a lot from Paulo Coelho. I had all of his books and I was excited to get this one and read it. On the toher hand, I dissapointed in the story. Even though, it gives more inside story about personal and intimate views, the story is not so entertaining.

It isn’t as flowing as the authors other books. However, it is much more intimate too. It’s an interesting and unique read about life and experiences in the 70s.

A Journey through the time of Peace and Love.

A semi-autobiographical novel of the Author’s life during the late sixties, a time of a new world evolving. Woodstock and the ‘Hippie, legacy.

Paulo is a young Brazilian, who wants to become a writer, he starts travelling to find a meaning of his life, visiting Bolivia, Peru, Chile and Argentina.

He eventually lands up in Amsterdam where he meets Karla, a Dutch woman, and travels with her To Nepal aboard the Magic bus, through Europe and Central Asia to Kathmandu.

Their fellow travellers have their own stories to tell, as does Karla and Paulo, and they all embark on a journey of discovery that will map out their future life.

A very entertaining book, with very likeable characters. The journey of Paulo and his companions, have you almost believing you are there with them and I found myself wondering how and what I would have discovered about myself on such a journey.

Well worth a read and you will be drawn in, the book flew by and I was sad to finish it.

I look forward to reading more by this Author.

Chester.

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of this book to review.

Thank you to net galley for this ARC. I have read many books by this author and generally they carry a meaningful message for the reader. This too carries something for the reader to take away but I feel as if it took a long time to get there, maybe that is reflecting the autobiographical nature of the book where a path has to be followed before a goal is achieved..

The main part of the book book follows Paul Coehelo and his travelling companion Karla as they travel towards Nepal in the Magic bus from Amsterdam. There is a small cast of characters that they meet along the way, all too searching for that inner meaning in life that seems to be symbolised in the free flowing, drug taking way of life.

I enjoyed some of the vignettes - that of Jacques and Marie which showed that even wealth, power and position may not be enough and I particularly liked the section that showed us that a life without love is a life only half lived

For me this is a good book but not the best from this author

A personal novel/ travelogue of the Hippie generation.

Set in the early 70’s Hippie tells the story of Paulo, a Brazilian, in search of answers to life’s big questions. He journeys from
South America all the way to Dam Square in Amsterdam where he meets Karla a Dutch woman on her way to Nepal. Together they embark on a journey on the magic bus through Europe and Asia and then Kathmandu.

This is a love story and reads a lot like a travelogue and draws on the author’s own experiences. Its clear that the author is keen to address and dispel the media stereotype of a hippie and achieves this to some extent.

It’s a nice easy read exploring love and self discovery and a generation asking the ‘big questions’.

Because it is a personal, partly autobiographical account of this time I found that it tended to jump around as if the author had been distracted by another memory and squeezed it in when perhaps not necessary. It’s obviously a passion piece and perhaps means more to the author than to the readers and perhaps a little self indulgent

I liked it enough but it didn’t grab me as a tale and found it a little flat. However, it’s well written and the author brings the counties and locations to life vividly in so much it did rekindle my desire to do more travelling.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC, in return for an honest review.

This is an interesting take on an interesting era. It's the 1960s-1970s and all over the world people are questioning social structures and getting experimental with everything from drugs to free love to world travel for the purpose of spiritual awakening. So many documentaries have been made about the era, usually focusing on London or New York or San Francisco. This one is written from the perspective of someone from Brazil.

He makes the pilgrimage to Machu Pichu and discovers that the high altitude can be dealt with by chewing Coca leaves, gets arrested as a terrorist because his girlfriend is from a Communist block country and goes through many other adventures that are generated by the times and social movements.

I found it fascinating to see his travels through the eyes of someone who wasn't either American or English. His time in Amsterdam made me smile as my own visits to the city, decades later, were very similar.

The writing was wonderful and had a certain dreamy quality that seems to come with writers from South America. This was a trip of nostalgia for a time and place I've never been and was a very enjoyable read.

I was sent a copy of Hippie by Paul Coelho to read and review by NetGalley.
I have mixed feelings about this book. While it is very informative regarding the time it was set (1970) and interesting in much of its subject matter; drugs, spiritual enlightenment and so on, I found it rather detached and matter of fact. I have no idea whether this was down to the translation or if this feeling is inherent in the original manuscript, but I suppose I thought I would feel more of a connection. Perhaps because it is autobiographical it comes across as interesting but with the sense more of an explanation rather than a story. I have given the novel 4 stars but I would probably have chosen 3½ had half marks been an option. I am glad I read it though!

“You already bought what you were looking for—stars are much more beautiful than flags. If you want, I can help you put them on in the shape of an Egyptian cross or the peace sign.”


Hippie is part biographical story of hippie lifestyle in the 1970s. Paulo Coelho writes such beautiful descriptions which show the reader moments in the story and gives philosophical asides along the way.

This is an interesting part travelogue collection of events that happened to the author during that time. It felt, to me, more of an autobiography than fiction as it felt so real. It did jump around a bit, like a persons thought process and once you get used to that it flows well.

An interesting and absorbing read.

I would like to thank the Author/the Publishers/NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a fair and honest review

I was expecting to read a novel set in the Hippie era. I was there and I do remember it and was looking forward to good, maybe nostalgic, fiction. What I got was more like good, nostalgic travelogue-cum-autobiography, well-written with some good characterisation and evocative descriptions of places. It was not, for me, a novel.

What to make of "Hippie" and what did I get out of this book? I was at a loss until the end when book's plot and format - and philosophy - suddenly made sense. I guess the author crafted his life experience, maybe adding some embellishments, into the book in order to show the reader a way to look back on one's life with few regrets: the past is just that; leave it be and live now for the future.

With many thanks to the publisher for giving me a copy in exchange for this honest review.

Paulo Coelho’s fantastic new book Hippie is based on real events from his life and is a must-read for anyone interested in the author.

Prior to reading Hippie any knowledge of the movement was based on stereotypes from the TV or remarks of a derogatory nature. The typical stereotype of a Hippie from the TV is of a slightly dim-witted person who is usually heavily into drugs and promiscuous. This is not the image presented by Paulo Coelho and that can only be a good thing.

The book begins in September 1970 and charts a journey taken by a young Brazilian boy named Paulo on the ‘death train’ to Bolivia and then eventually on to Amsterdam.

Once in Amsterdam he meets a young woman named Karla who encourages her to travel with her on the ‘Magic Bus’ from Amsterdam to Nepal. Along the way they hear from fellow travellers each of whom are following for the hippie trail for their own reasons. They also explore their relationship, one that will change both of their lives forever.

“Two sites squared off for the title of the center of the world: Piccadilly Circus in London, and Dam Square, in Amsterdam. But not everyone knew this.”

At this time airplane tickets were expensive, so few could afford to travel in that manner so young people turned to alternative methods of travel.

Paulo Coelho addresses the stereotypes surrounding the Hippie movement very early on.

“These outdated media outlets could see only their outward appearance: they wore their hair long, dressed in bright-coloured clothing, never took a bath (which was a lie, but these young kids didn’t read the newspaper, and the older generation believed any news that served to degenerate those they considered ‘a danger to society and common decency.’

The Hippie’s disdain for traditional forms of media led to them using a publication called ‘The Invisible Post’ to discover the latest popular trails and a book on how to live for five dollars a day.

“No one knew exactly what the word ‘Hippie’ meant, and it didn’t much matter. Perhaps it meant ‘a large tribe without a leader’ or ‘delinquents who don’t steal’

One of the things Paulo Coelho emphasises in Hippie is how powerful women were at this time.

“Now, in September 1970, women ruled the world – or, more precisely, young hippie women ruled the world. Wherever they went, the men did so knowing these women weren’t about to be seduced by the latest trends – the women knew much more about the subject than the men did. And so the men decided to accept once and for all that they needed these women; they constantly wore an expression of yearning, as though begging, ‘please protect me, I’m alone and I can’t find anyone, I think the world’s forgotten me and love has forsaken me forever.’ The women had their pick of men and never gave a thought to marriage, only to having a good time enjoying wild, intense sex. When it came to important things, and even the most superficial and irrelevant, they had the last word.”

Karla is clearly one such woman, in fact all the women in Hippie have quite strong characters.

“Karla was seated in Dam Square, asking herself when the guy who ought to accompany her on this magical adventure might show up.”

She left her job in Rotterdam because she wanted to travel on the latest hippie trail through Turkey, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and part of India. She doesn’t want to do it alone though which is why she is sat in the square.

Also, she has been told by a psychic that she will find the man she will travel with in that square.

“After nearly a week of waiting, she was growing anxious. She’d approached a dozen young men from different countries who wanted nothing but to stay put, in that town square filled with nothing remarkable but a phallic monument, which at a minimum should have inspired virility and courage. But no, not a single one of them was inclined to travel to unknown lands.”

Meanwhile, while she is waiting in the square Paolo is on a train approaching the Dutch border but is preoccupied with memories of another more harrowing journey.

“Paulo knew that there, in Europe, the things he’d been through did not happen. Or, rather, they had happened but in the past. He always asked himself how those walking to the gas chambers in the concentration camps or lined up for death at a mass grave, watching the firing squad execute the front line, never had the slightest reaction, never tried to run, never attacked their executioners.

The answer was simple: their panic was so great that they were no longer present. The brain blocks out everything, there’s neither terror nor fear, just a strange submission to what’s about to occur.

Hippie is a very spiritual book that will appeal to readers even if they themselves are not that way inclined.

The overwhelming themes of the book are self-discovery and linked to that the importance of the ability to love.

“Because a life without love isn’t worth living. What is a life without love? It is a tree that bears no fruit. It’s sleeping without dreaming. At times, its even an inability to sleep. It’s living one day after another waiting for the sun to shine into a room that is completely shut up, painted black, where you know where the key is but have no desire to know where the door is and go out.”

As usual Paulo Coelho writes in a lyrical way that makes Hippie a pleasure to read, a very well-written and compelling book.

Our Final Rating...

My thanks to Random House/Cornerstone for the opportunity to read and review this book. I received the ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was a teenager in the 1960s though a little too young for the full hippie experience. Still I was part of the wider community, enjoying the music and philosophy alongside others who were fully committed (and did not have school during the week). In addition, over the years I have read a few of Paulo Coelho’s books and found them inspiring so this seemed a good fit.

This semi-autobiography was like sitting with a slightly older friend, who had been free to travel, and let him reminisce about those times and an important part of his early spiritual journey.

This felt a very personal story as to be expected from a memoir. It also is very much a travelogue and while I am not a big fan of either genre this was interesting and easy to read. I would think for those who avidity read Coelho’s works it will be a must-read. 3.5 stars.

Hippie was going back to my teenage years when I was reading a lot of Paulo Coelho.
I liked this book for many reasons. It was a very good intro in which I learned a lot about the hippie life style of 1970s. It was also a good insight to Coelho's own life. There are very nice descriptions, atmosphere, beautiful writing as always.
I think Coelho is not famous for his pacing in any of his books, and this is no exception. Sometimes it was hard to hold on to as it got slow. And it was quite like an autobiography rather than a creative fiction.

Regardless, I enjoyed my re-visit of Coelho's writing. It was a solid, quick read. I appreciate what this book taught me about 70s. If you're curious about the moment, it's definitely a good one to explore.

Thanks a lot to the publisher and Netgalley for this free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I always enjoy reading Paulo Coelho's books because he is such a good story teller. I don't thoroughly understand the hippie lifestlye but Paulo gives an insight to what it means to live as a hippie (especially in the 70s)

Although the stories told in this book make it seem like such an easy read, there are many lessons that may be overlooked if it is read as just another novel.

Hippie by Paulo Coelho

It took me two attempts to read this book but I have finally finished. Now that I have finished I feel I’m left with mixed thoughts about this book. On the one hand I enjoyed it and on the other I didn’t. I have found it a bit difficult to write my thoughts on this book so I thought I would try something different to try and make it easier for you all to understand my thoughts. Here goes…

What I liked about the book:
1. The beginning of the book was very interesting and I learnt some interesting things about the “Hippie” era.
2. I learnt more about Paulo Coelho and his younger self as this was an Autobiography.
3. It was a quick read overall apart from the slow bits.
4. It was written pretty well.

What I didn’t like about the book:
1. The storyline slows down after the interesting bits at the beginning and I struggled with these parts.
2. At times it felt like I was reading a travel guide because there was a bit too much description of places for my liking.
3. The storyline jumps around to past and present tense which I felt gets in the way with the flow of the book.
4. Sometimes the story went off track and concentrated on other people rather than Coelho.
5. The ending was a little disappointing and felt it wasn’t developed enough

Overall an OK-ish read for me, but I know people who will love this book much more than me. Also, I think I may try to re-read this book in again in the future as I think I wasn’t really in the right mood/head space while reading it.

So, would I recommend this book? Yes, I think I would, especially if you’re a fan of Coelho’s previous books.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Random House UK, Cornerstone Hutchinson in return for an hones and unbiased review.

I'm not sure what to make of this. It's a fascinating travel guide on the one hand and we get to see and experience some wonderful places but as a memoir I got a bit lost as it reads like a gap year diary going from one thought to another with little direction.

I suppose people who experienced the hippie stage of life might get more from this but Paulo tells you what happened fact after fact without really delving into the whys and wherefors. It's the hippie way of life I guess - travelling and smoking, drinking and free love 'just because'. There are some interesting views of places we now think of as adventurous and iconic with backpackers such as Macchu Picchu and the Death Train of Bolivia which I enjoyed but these read as snippets, vignettes of a travel diary rather than an essay on enlightenment.

I won't see Dam Square in Amsterdam in the same light again that's for sure!

Overall, I didn't get what he was trying to achieve I'm afraid.