Brazilian author Paulo Coelho's best-known book The Alchemist, the story of a young Andalusian shepherd on a personal quest, spent almost eight years – that's two American presidential election cycles – on the bestseller lists. It was translated into 81 languages. All told, the writer has sold an estimated 350 million books.

In this Rattlebag public interview from 2001 he spoke to Myles Dungan. about his work and his extraordinary life.

The occasion was the publication of The Devil and Miss Prym.

On sound was Pat Hogan and Johnny Craig.

The producer was Kevin Reynolds.