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synthia02 's review for:
The Witch of Portobello
by Paulo Coelho
Not a standard approach to telling a story. The writing style is engaging and the content reflective. It is the story of a mysterious woman named Sherine Khalil, aka Athena, told by the many who knew her well—or hardly at all. She is dead as the book opens, the story recounts her birth in Transylvania to a Gypsy mother, her adoption by wealthy Lebanese Christians; her short, early marriage to a man she meets at a London college (one of the interviewees); her son Viorel's birth; and her stint selling real estate in Dubai. Back in London in the book's second half, Athena learns to harness the powers that have been present but inchoate within her, and the story picks up as she acquires a teacher (Deidre O'Neill, aka Edda, another interviewee), then disciples (also interviewed), and speeds toward the end.