The Devil and Miss Prym

Title : The Devil and Miss Prym
Writer : Paulo Coelho
Year : 2000
Language : translated into Indonesian

This is the third Paulo Coelho’s book that I’ve read, the last of his so-called trilogy apparently. I never thought that there’s a chain of trilogy between By the River Piedra I Sat and Wept, Veronika Decides to Die, and this book. Call me stupid, but I’d just already known it when I read the preface page. And for sure, I haven’t read the first book of this trilogy chain yet. It’s the same as The Alchemist (and his other books, perhaps) in that it uses a fairy-tale kind of narrative.

It talks about a temptation in a small almost-abandoned village called Viscos, where all people living there are old and there’s only one young woman who’s eager to leave the village soon. A stranger named Carlos comes with a challenge: giving ten sticks of gold to all people of Viscos in one condition, there must be someone to sacrifice. His horrible past drives him to frustration making him trying so hard to prove one thing: that there’s still goodness, a good one, and good deeds. However, his mission may only be proving that all people in the world are bad and evil.

This story is very much tempting. I thought that the story must have ended in the middle of the story, but apparently, it doesn’t stop at the highest tense of the story. The story ends in its own way, not really smooth though. I like the core of the story, the philosophy implied in it. Many other stories may have the same idea, but Coelho prefers to make it easier to understand, easier to catch. The point is: when people face two ways of life, good and evil, there must be a way out to stay good even though we want the rewards.

Rating: 3