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This paper engages with selected novels by Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho, and highlights some of the distinctively Brazilian approaches to religion and faith. Foregrounding the motif of pilgrimage within the accessible religious register of The Pilgrimage (1987), The Valkyries (1992) and The Zahir (2005), I analyze the ways in which Coelho’s protagonists pursue individual rights and achieve renunciation. Viewed from the angle of postmodern narrative, pilgrimage is an alternative space which reflects and celebrates the eclectic quality of Brazilian religious values. Because it is inherently individualistic, Coelho’s notion of pilgrimage breaks bonds with official religious discourses. Finally, the Brazilian pilgrim’s renunciation as means of moral replenishment and spiritual salvation in a problematic society is assessed from Lyotard’s perspective.
