Dalam novel ini, yang terbit sebelum The Alchemist-Sang Alkemis, Paulo menempuh perjalanan untuk mencapai pengetahuan diri, kebijaksanaan, dan penguasaan spiritual. Diapndu oleh teman seperjalanannya yang misterius bernama Petrus, Paulo menyusuri jalan ke Santiago yang suci, melalui serangkaian cobaan dan ujian sepanjang jalan-bahkan bertatap muka dengan seseorang yang mungkin sang iblis sendi…
"Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should dwell."
"If it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic."
... The novel gave such a terrific impetus to the crusade for the abolition of slavery that Presiden Lincoln half-jokingly greeted Stowe as 'the little lady' who started the great Civil War. ...
Four people in a car, hoping to make Chicago by morning. One man driving, eyes on the road. Another man next to him, telling stories that don’t add up. A woman in the back, silent and worried. And next to her, a huge man with a broken nose, hitching a ride east to Virginia. An hour behind them, a man lies stabbed to death in an old pumping station. He was seen going in with two others, but…