It started off pretty good, but then dragged on...rather disappointing, actually. Maria was really not a character I could sympathize with. ( )

Paulo Koeljo se smatra najuticajnijim savremenim piscem. Njegova dela prodata su širom sveta u tiražu od preko 320 miliona primeraka, objavljena u 170 zemalja i prevedena na preko 88 jezika.

Život je kratak – ili isuviše dug – da bih sebi mogla da dozvolim taj luksuz da živim loše.

„Bila jednom jedna prostitutka po imenu Marija...“ Tako počinje ova sasvim posebna Koeljova knjiga, zapravo priča o devojci čije će srce prepući posle prvog susreta sa ljubavlju. Uverena da nikada neće otkriti pravu ljubav, odlazi u Ženevu u želji da tamo pronađe bar zrno sreće i sretne svoju sudbinu. Malodušna i razočarana, sreće lepog, mladog slikara, pa njene crne predstave o ljubavi odmah bivaju dovedene u pitanje... U ovoj odiseji samootkrivanja Marija mora da izabere između stranputice kojom je krenula i rizika da izgubi sve što je stekla zarad otkrivanja „unutrašnje svetlosti“ u sebi i mogućnosti prosvetljene putene ljubavi...

„Veoma senzualan roman... Bajka za odrasle.“ The Washington Post

„U poređenju sa prethodnim Koeljovim romanima, Jedanaest minuta je dvostruko veći i dvaput interesantniji... U ovoj zaista fascinantnoj knjizi može se uživati mnogo duže nego jedanaest minuta.“ Известия

„Koeljo ne bi bio majstor svog zanata da Jedanaest minuta nisu eksplicitna vera u snagu ljubavi. Emotivni spektar njegovih likova ovde je kudikamo raznovrsniji nego ranije.“ Westfälischer Anzeiger

Roden u Rio de Žaneiru (Brazil) 1947. godine, Paulo Koeljo je autor nekoliko naslova koji spadaju u najcitanije knjige našeg vremena. Medu njima su Dnevnik jednog carobnjaka i Alhemicar koji su ga i ucinili svetski poznatim. Naravno, Paulo Koeljo je napisao mnoge druge knjige koje su dirnule srca ljudi širom sveta – Brida, Veronika je odlucila da umre, Jedanaest minuta, Alef.

Dobitnik je brojnih prestižnih medunarodnih nagrada. Izabran je za clana Brazilske književne akademije 2002. godine, a od 2007. godine je ambasador mira Ujedinjenih nacija. Godine 2009 dodeljeno mu je priznanje Ginisove knjige rekorda za najprevodenijeg autora jednog romana (Alhemicar). Takode, on je i autor koga prati najviše ljudi na društvenim mrežama.

Quick read. Interesting background of a prostetute. ( )

I honestly can't tell if I "liked" that book, or just thought "it was ok". However, I now know it's true that if you read one book by Coelho, you read them all. That might not be enough to prevent me from reading another one of his books in the future since they are - generally - very light and slightly engaging.
The story in itself is not brilliant, nor exciting (a book that tells a story of a prostitute should be, right?) I'm guessing it might have been a more enjoyable read if the story with all its details was an actual one written by Maria (the protagonist), since it was definitely interesting. I've learned a few things I wanted to know more about before, but never had the chance to (History of prostitution, and more things of the like).
( )

This book, about a girl with simple yet complex dreams and her choices which she thinks, are adventurous, will lead us to introspection even though the events in her life and ours are entirely different .. and that I think is the art of writing which the author has brought about in his work... I would recommend this book to people who love reading novels, the ones who think a lot after reading, and to the ones who are so good at picturing the entire novel creatively in mind 😉 I think it will be a great loss for novel lovers if they couldn't read this book....and I end up by a quote from the book. ( )

I knew what this book is all about long before I have actually read it. I don’t want to judge people who have succumb to prostitution as their way of living. I think I just got surprised by how this author have narrated such a book. It’s just that I’m aggravated by how the author tries to add more complexities to an already unconventional topic. I think it’s absurd to try to make it acceptable and make it “sacred” to normalize talking about it. I’m not trying to be a saint by saying this. It is my personal opinion that it’s better if the author had just left this topic altogether.

On the other hand, I like the good sappy sayings about life, mostly written by Maria through her diary. But other than that, I don’t recommend this book.

I’m rather proud of myself for picking this book up in the first place. Well, I guess it’s still a thing to learn how to stretch your mind and accept that not all things will agree on your beliefs. I still love some of Coelho’s books, most especially the “The Alchemist”. But I have to say that this book really challenged me of how I perceived the author. ( )

Its an amazing book of Paulo Coelho.
I have read it two times but both times it impressed me and give a good feel. ( )

Probably the worst book I ever read in my entire life.



Apparently to be fulfilled in life you need three things

1. Romantic love
2. Orgasms
3. Money

( )

Not as good as The Alchemist. Not as bad as Veronica Decides to Die. In between. I guess I liked it because I lived in Geneva about 25 years ago and several of the land marks are in the book. I dislike the that a male tells about what its like to be a female prostitute and dislike that Coelho is so predictable. ( )

Again, too 'out there' for me. I really want to like Paulo Coelho's books after reading The Alchemist. Which one should I read? ( )

Maria es de un pueblo situado al norte de Brasil. Todavía adolescente, viaja a Río de Janeiro, donde conoce a un empresario que le ofrece un buen trabajo en Ginebra. Allí, Maria sueña con encontrar fama y fortuna, pero acabará ejerciendo la prostitución. El aprendizaje que extraerá de sus duras experiencias modificará para siempre su actitud ante sí misma y ante la vida.

Como un cuento de hadas para adultos, Once minutos es una novela que explora la naturaleza del sexo y del amor, la intensa y difícil relación entre cuerpo y alma, y cómo alcanzar la perfecta unión entre ambos. Once minutos ofrece al lector una experiencia inigualable de lectura y reflexión.

3.5***

Maria is a young girl form a small Brazilian town. Her first love leaves her heartbroken and she becomes convinced that she is destined to never find true love. She works in a drapery firm, where she fends off her boss. On a trip to Rio de Janeiro she meets a “businessman” who promises her fame and fortune in Switzerland.

Well this went in a direction I wasn’t expecting. Yes, of course, Maria winds up a prostitute and not a famous movie actress, but she comes to understand much about herself and the world. She starts going to the library and reads up on a wide variety of topics. She opens a bank account and saves for her eventual return to Brazil, where she plans to buy a farm for her parents. She explores her sexuality in ways she never expected and thinks long and hard about the meaning of love and whether it really exists.

There were several times when I thought that Coelho really doesn’t know women at all. And still, I was captivated by Maria and her journey.

I had previously read Coelho’s The Alchemist and was not enthralled. At the outset of this book I felt it might just be the author’s attempt to write the same book with a female protagonist. But the strength and beauty of Coelho’s writing carried me away.

I was heading for a 4-star rating, but the fairy tale ending lost a half star for me. ( )

Many times I started the book, I couldn't always continue. But sometimes I managed to finish it, each time I left with a different feeling - Shocking and surprising.

I'm not sure this book is for everyone, I don't know how to define it. It has sexual content, exciting at the beginning of the book and pretty dull somewhere in the middle, a little shallow end. It feels like when Coelho wrote the book he had a lot of ideas that faded in the middle of writing. A good book but not a masterpiece. ( )

Tiene la trama de una joven que viaja a rió de janeiro donde conoce a un joven empresario que le ofrece trabajo seguro, ella soñaba con encontrar la fortuna y fama pero acabo ejerciendo la prostitución ( )

“Everything tells me that I am about to make a wrong decision, but making mistakes is just part of life. What does the world want of me? Does it want me to take no risks, to go back to where I came from because I didn't have the courage to say "yes" to life?”

Eleven Minutes tells the tale a young woman named Maria who leaves her home town in the Brazilian interior to go to Geneva, Switzerland, in search of adventure and love. She originally goes as a dancer but when this proves not to be what she had hoped for and instead pursues a career in prostitution in order to make enough money to return home. Whilst in Switzerland, Maria experiences pain, pleasure, and love and must decide the correct path for her life.

Desire is a major theme throughout. Maria realises that she is different from her family and school friends and desires the to leave her own town and find adventure. She takes the first opportunity she has to visit Rio where she is spotted and given the chance to travel to Switzerland. Obviously sex is also a desire in particular by the men who pay for it but Maria also desires true love and eventually a family. Yet once in both Geneva she fails to really do anything other than wander around the city and work never leaving the city's environs suggesting that desire is more preferable to attainment.

Initially I thought that this might be an expose of the white slavery trade but in the end read like a lot of moralising with a lengthy segment about the cliterous which seemed to add little to the story. Rather sections read like an extended soft-porn tale with little of the mystic qualities that the author's books are usually renowned for. Overall I found this disappointing but then perhaps it was just my male ego taking a hefty knock. ( )

Could sex be sacred/ Yes maybe with the right person. Mixed messages, but a profound book. ( )

The parallels between Maria and the shepherd in The Alchemist are clear, and easy to see early on. And for about a third of the book, I was disappointed that Coehlo chose to make the modern female counterpart to the shepherd a prostitute. (I still think he could have found a better adventure for a modern female.)
However, the lessons from this book are worth putting that aside and getting through the rest. Not quite a must-read, but it will give plenty to think about to those who go along for this ride. ( )

This book broke my heart!! I didn't like it!!! And to think it's a true story is devastating! ( )

This book broke my heart!! I didn't like it!!! And to think it's a true story is devastating! ( )

“And if nothing belongs to me, then there is no point wasting my time looking after things that aren’t mine; it’s best to live as if today were the first (or last) day of my life” - Maria, Eleven Minutes.

What is Love? This is the question that plagues eighteen-year-old Maria. Maria journeys from her hometown in a small poverished Brazilian village, to Rio to Geneva where instead of living out her dreams of fame and modeling she ends up working as a stripper/prostitute.

She becomes convinced that she will never find true love, instead believing that “Love is a terrible thing that will make you suffer …” Until she meets a handsome young painter. In this odyssey of self-discovery, Maria has to choose between pursuing a path of darkness, sexual pleasure for its own sake, or risking everything to find her own “inner light” and the possibility of sacred sex, sex in the context of love.

“And if nothing belongs to me, then there is no point wasting my time looking after things that aren’t mine; it’s best to live as if today were the first (or last) day of my life” - Maria, Eleven Minutes.

What is Love? This is the question that plagues eighteen-year-old Maria. Maria journeys from her hometown in a small poverished Brazilian village, to Rio to Geneva where instead of living out her dreams of fame and modeling she ends up working as a stripper/prostitute.

She becomes convinced that she will never find true love, instead believing that “Love is a terrible thing that will make you suffer …” Until she meets a handsome young painter. In this odyssey of self-discovery, Maria has to choose between pursuing a path of darkness, sexual pleasure for its own sake, or risking everything to find her own “inner light” and the possibility of sacred sex, sex in the context of love.

This was a very good book and had some good quotes in it. I borrowed it from the library and i am very happy that I read it. Paulo Coelho is a brilliant writer ( )

Whether you like the Paulo Coelho's novel or not, "Eleven minutes" is a book you should not miss. There are many books discussing what love should be. However, after reading this book, you will find them are very primitive and nothing special. The book nakely and deeply discuss what love and sex is and should be. ( )

I'm having a hard time deciding what I think of this book. In some ways it's very different from everything else Coelho has written, and in some ways it's very similar.

In the beginning I was a little uncomfortable, but I learned to embrace life, as Maria did.

When you strip the book bare, you're left with a story about love, about embracing life, about a young woman's coming of age, and about how people deal with sex.

Usually I can find at least one specific message that I take away from Coelho's books and try to apply to my life. That didn't happen with this one, but I have been thinking a lot about the issues raised. ( )

Paulo Coelho's first work that i read was the alchemist and i didnt understand that y d world went all ga-ga over paulo coelho's work. perhaps i was too young to understand the underlying meaning of the words.
but many years now, i read another of his work. normally it takes me a very short amount of time to finish off a book but dis one i took a long time to complete. coz in order to understand the true self of this book one has to sip it like a Bordeaux..to let the flavor set in.
i must say, it was a ponderous journey and an truly enlightening one.

( )