The Fifth Mountain (Book Review)

[yanily66]

What can I say! I Loved this book! As everyone knows Paulo Coelho is considered one of the best writers there are, he is the recipient of numerous international awards  and one of his books has been translated into 80 languages. Amazing isn't it? But that's not all, what I most admire about him is how modest and down to earth his books are! After reading one of his books "The warrior of the light" I decided to try some of his other books... that's when I came across this book, The Fifth Mountain.

This incredible book was written back in 1996, his eleventh book.  In this book the author focuses in a biblical well-known character Elijah, and tells the story of his adventure trying to defeat the powerful queen Jezebel. Thru-out the book you follow this brave and novel character in his journey as a prophet and you get to watch him grow in confidence and understanding. This book is a great example in understanding that sometimes things happened to make you grow and get you to where you need to go, many times this prophet had second thoughts of what he was doing. There were even times where he wanted to give up, but no matter how hard the situation was he finally understood at the end that everything was happening because it was part of a plan. The plan of the One God. Like Paulo Coelho said “There are moments when troubles enter our lives and we can do nothing to avoid them. But they are there for a reason. Only when we have overcome them will we understand why they were there.”

This book shares the same theme as 'The Alchemist', the theme of the quest, seen as a journey that takes the main character far from his own country. 'The Fifth Mountain' begins with a reference to 'The Alchemist' and the author repeats the central idea of his first book: `when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it'. This book can be considered a sequel, although the content is different. But in principle, the idea remains the same: how to accept and carry the responsibility of living one's`destiny'.

The main character is prophet Elijah, a Biblical figure who set out the conditions for the coming of the Messiah, and eventually, after he was thoroughly tested was sent up to Heaven. His mission from God was to restore His worship in Israel, for the king there had married a foreign princess, who was introducing her own gods to the people.

The text of the book in itself is very simple, but the message is very powerful: only by confronting what is most important to you, and so confronting yourself at your most vulnerable, you can climb the wall of frustrations that keeps you from what you desire, which gives meaning to your life.

To what point can we predict our own destiny? - this is the main question in the book and I'm sure many of us tried to find an answer. Elijah is sometimes torn between the desire to serve God and the needs of those he has come to love. But the reader will find out that love and faith will eventually triumph over. Only love and faith will help our hero get over the difficulties.

Even thou I truly love this authors books I still took the time to do a bit of research on the ratings it was getting. to be honest I was a bit disappointed to see that Goodreads gave this book a 3.6, compared to the other two who fair enough gave them a rating of 4 and 4.5. In my opinion I rate this book a 4.5.


Overall... I loved this book, It uses a well-known history character to demonstrate how we shouldnt give up in life no matter what happens! One part of the book that really stuck to me was this one:

“Everything will happen as was written by the Lord," replied the prophet. "There are moments when tribulations occur in our lives, and we cannot avoid them. But they are there for some reason."

"What reason?"

"That is a question we cannot answer before, or even during the trials. Only when we have overcome them do we understand why they were there.”