A modern fable of sex and love. Eleven Minutes tells the story of Maria, a young girl from a Brazilian village, whose first innocent brushes with love leave her heart-broken. At a tender age she becomes convinced that she will never find true love, instead believing that love is a terrible thing that will make you suffer ... A chance meeting in Rio takes her to Geneva, where she dreams of finding fame and fortune yet ends up working as a prostitute. In Geneva, Maria drifts further and further away from love while at the same time developing a fascination with sex. Eventually, Maria's despairing view of love is put to the test when 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. In this gripping and daring novel, Paulo Coelho sensitively explores the sacred nature of sex and love and invites us to confront our prejudices and demons and embrace our own 'inner light'. Paulo Coelho was born in Brazil and has become one of the most widely read authors in the world today. Renowned for his best-loved work, the Alchemist, he has sold more than 50 million books worldwide and has been translated into 56 languages.