An autobiographical account, it is his fourteenth major book, and touches on the theme of spirituality.

The book tells the story of his own epiphany while on a pilgrimage through Asia in 2006 on the Trans-Siberian Railway.

[1][2] The title of the novel is based on Jorge Luis Borges’ short story "The Aleph", from 1945.

Coelho spent four years gathering information for the book and wrote it in three weeks.

[3] Prefacing her New York Times interview with Coelho about the novel, Julie Bosman described the author as “a Twitter mystic”.