Brida
Paulo Coelho's 1990 novel, finally translated into English in 2008, follows Brida O'Fern, a young Irish woman who walks into a forest looking for a man who can teach her magic and walks back out with two simultaneous apprenticeships, one in a tradition Coelho calls the Tradition of the Sun, the other in the Tradition of the Moon. As Brida wrestles with whether she is a witch in the lineage of her own past lives, she also navigates an unsettled relationship with a long-suffering boyfriend named Lorens and an attraction to her forest teacher Magus that may be older than this lifetime. Coelho mixes the parable register he made famous in The Alchemist with a frankly mystical theory of soul mates. Quiet, sincere, and unembarrassed about its earnestness.
Themes & atmosphere
Where Brida keeps showing up
One of our editors' lists features this novel.
Also by Paulo Coelho
All works by Paulo Coelho →
What you might want to know about Brida
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
In modern Ireland, a curious young woman named Brida studies under a witch in the forest and a magus in Dublin, working through two paths of an old wisdom tradition while watching for the man fate has matched her with.
Brida shares Paulo Coelho's spiritual-fable style and themes of self-discovery and personal destiny. It is set in Ireland and centers on a young woman studying witchcraft. Many readers consider it a romantic counterpart to The Alchemist's pilgrimage.
No. Brida is independent of The Alchemist and can be read first. Both are standalones from Coelho's catalog.
Brida was written by Paulo Coelho, published in 2008 by HarperCollins UK.
Brida is 282 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Brida takes most readers 4 to 6 hours to finish.
Brida is a standalone novel by Paulo Coelho, not part of a series.
Brida is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.