Do we like Paulo Coelho?
Our score: 7 out of 10. Nothing harmful found and a long record of speaking up against censorship and strongmen, but little on record about LGBTQ+ issues either way.
Paulo Coelho was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1947 and tried journalism, theatre and music before writing. His breakthrough was The Alchemist, first published in 1988, which sold slowly at first and then became one of the most translated novels going. A fresh profile for his 79th birthday this August is mostly a victory lap about his readers in the Arab world.
The formative chapter is Brazil's military dictatorship. In a BBC Brasil interview he said he was tortured in 1974, and he warned that Brazil risked returning to those dark years. That history helps explain why he has never been shy about taking on strongmen.
The best-known stoush is with Jair Bolsonaro. In that interview he accused Bolsonaro of destroying the world's view of Brazil and of denying the Amazon fires. In September 2020 he called for a boycott of Brazilian exports, writing that otherwise the “talibã cristão” would control the country, then deleted the post. Bolsonaro supporters filmed themselves burning his books, and he answered with sarcasm and a reference to Nazi book burnings.
On the harm test, nothing turned up: no campaigning against LGBTQ+ or trans people, no conspiracy-theory slide, no dodgy co-stars or studios. The flip side is that we found very little from him on LGBTQ+ issues at all, so this is a pass on the record we could find, not a ringing endorsement. His loudest political fights have been against censorship and a government criticised over its handling of the Amazon.
He took on censorship abroad too. In 2011 he said Iran had banned all his books, called it “an arbitrary decision”, and promised free downloads of the Persian translations. Iranian officials did not confirm a ban, so treat it as his account of a dispute that was never settled.
The good stuff is real. In 2007 the UN's Ban Ki-moon named him a Messenger of Peace, and through the Paulo Coelho Institute he supports underprivileged people in Brazil. No court cases or credible allegations against him turned up, and there is nothing new on him lately beyond birthday profiles.