BOOK REVIEW: The Devil and Ms. Prym By Paulo Coelho

Date: September-October 2006
Publication: Current Magazine

Section and Page: Current Diversion, page 52
Publisher: Finserve Corporation, Meralco

Will you kill an innocent person in exchange of wealth and fortune?

This is the exact dilemma that shook Viscos, a remote village where people spent all the days in their lives in a dragging routine. Everything was fine and as typical as any other day, until the stranger accompanied by the Devil paid them a visit in search of answers. He wants to know if human beings are essentially Good or Evil by plotting a test in one of God’s Commandments: Thou shall not kill.

“A novel of temptation”, Coelho shares to us a parable of the Good and Evil battling in every hearts and minds. When offered with eleven gold bars that can last them a lifetime without going back to the fields, will the people of Viscos succumb to the deal of their visitor even though the price to pay is the unthinkable act of committing a murder?

Paulo Coelho proves he is one of the most beloved author in our time through this another sure-hit novel on everyday human struggles in search of the true meaning of life. Like his two other masterworks By the River Piedra I sat Down and Wept (1994) and Veronika Decides to Die (1998), this thought-provoking tale revolves around the week of ordinary characters who were suddenly faced with moral dilemmas and the human conflicts of greed, fear, and cowardice.

See yourself in one or all of the persons in this stunning novel that will open your eyes to the reality of what one man can do for revenge and power. Let a small community magnify what actually happens elsewhere around the world. The Devil and Miss Prym can be a disturbing fable that will teach us to conquer the fears that has always stopped us from living our dreams, and the power of the choices we make.


Quotable Quote:
Good and Evil struggled in both of them, just as they did in every soul on the face of the earth….It was all a matter of control. And Choice. Nothing more and nothing less.