Who wrote 'The Alchemist'?

The Alchemist is a novel by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho which was first published in 1988. Originally written in Portuguese, it became an international bestseller translated into some 70 languages as of 2016. The story is a modern variant of the type The Man Who Became Rich Through a Dream (Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 1645). Over the years there have been film and theatrical adaptations of the work and musical interpretations of it.

The Alchemist follows the journey of an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago. Believing a recurring dream to be prophetic, he asks a Romani fortune-teller in a nearby town about its meaning. The woman interprets the dream as a prophecy telling the boy that he will discover a treasure at the Egyptian pyramids.