Eleven Minutes
Paulo Coehlo
HarperCollins $75
Paulo Coelho's introduction apologises for a novel that differs from his others. The award-winning Brazilian usually writes mystical fables, such as The Alchemist, that reveal simple, spiritual truths. Eleven Minutes is a little racier. The title refers to the average duration of a sexual encounter. The protagonist, Maria, is a young girl from a Brazilian village who has her heart cruelly broken. She goes to Geneva, where she lands a job as a dancer in a club but takes up prostitution to make more money. She has two suitors. One loves 'the light' within her. The other gives her ecstatic sexual pleasure - with a whip. This gives her the opportunity to contemplate the relationship between love and sex. She concludes sex is sacred only within a loving relationship.
