The Winner Stands Alone - Tapa blanda

[Coelho's] special talent seems to be his ability to speak to everyone at once. . . . His readers often say that they see their own lives in his own books. (The New Yorker)

This scintillating parable about shallowness, greed, and celebrity worship from international bestseller Coelho (The Alchemist) unsparingly examines the Superclass, the elite s elite. . . Coelho s trademark mysticism and spiritual messages provide an extra boost to the thriller plot. (Publishers Weekly)

According to Paulo Coelho, The Winner Stands Alone is a photograph of the world we live in, captured in the form of a novel. The action, in accelerated rhythm, occurs in less than 24 hours during the Cannes Film Festival. Igor Dalev, a successful Russian entrepreneur, arrives in France determined to recover Ewa, his ex-wife and the great love of his life. Since Ewa is remarried to Hamid Hussein, a stylist and star of the fashion circuit, Igor becomes increasingly desperate, determined to get her attention by any means necessary. And so, crippled by jealousy and passion and, above all, a desire to impress Ewa, Igor becomes a serial killer. By killing innocent people, he believes he is destroying universes and hence demonstrating the strength of his feelings. Producers, consecrated actors, aspiring actresses, top models and stylists -- all of them are portrayed in a merciless portrait of luxury and of the Superclass, the elite who, by influencing people, define the directions of our days.

By providing the reader with details of how these characters -- all of them based on real-life people -- live and behave, Paulo Coelho turns his twelfth novel into a shrewd criticism of a world overrun by glamour and excess. But above all, The Winner Is Alone is a pulse-pounding, page-turning psycological thriller -- a striking departure for one of the world s best-loved authors.