The Valkyries

The Valkyries

Author	Paulo Coelho
Original title	As Valkírias
Language	Portuguese
Genre	Love, Mystery, Spiritual
Publication date	1992
Publication place	Brazil
Preceded by	'Brida
Followed by	'By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

The Valkyries (Portuguese: As Valkírias; ISBN 978-0062513342) is a 1992 novel by Paulo Coelho.

The book is autobiographical, but told from the third person. It deals with the exorcism of personal demons and discovering one's strength. It also deals with relationships among people, in this case, Paulo and his wife. Together with her, he embarks on a journey through the soaring heat of the Mojave desert. During the 40 days journey, surrounded by doubts and temptations and entering their innermost conflicts and questions, they met the valkyries, strange warrior women.

Plot summary

The plot involved Paulo going to the Mojave Desert to meet "the Valkyries" themselves, a group of warrior women who travel the desert on motorcycles.

At the beginning of the story, "J", Coelho's master in RAM, shows him a copy of the poem by Wilde that says "we destroy what we love" and this theme is central to the story.

• A story about Paulo and his wife as they embark on an adventure to find his guardian angel.

Editions

The Valkyries has sold its rights to 26 languages: Arabic, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Lithuania, Macedonian, Malayalam, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish.