Eleven Minutes
by Paulo Coelho
★ Top 25 book of 2003 · #15 on Best Books of 2003
The story of Maria, a young girl from a Brazilian village whose first brushes with love leave her heartbroken. She becomes convinced she will never find true love and believes that love is a terrible thing.
Best for: Readers of Paulo Coelho who like stories about love and self-discovery.
Eleven Minutes is #15 on BookWard's Best Books of 2003, out of 52 2003 books that cleared our data bar.
What Eleven Minutes is about
Maria grows up in a small Brazilian village, where her first innocent brushes with love leave her heartbroken. She decides that love only brings suffering and that she will never find the real thing. A chance meeting in Rio carries her to Geneva, where she dreams of fame and fortune.
Then she meets a handsome young painter, who challenges her bleak view of love. The story asks whether sex can be only a transaction or something closer to the sacred. Maria must choose between pleasure for its own sake and the risk of seeking her inner light. The tone is reflective and sensual, and it suits readers who enjoy philosophical fiction about love. The P.S. edition adds author interviews and recommended reading.
Eleven Minutes on the Best Books of 2003
Eleven Minutes came out in 2003. Of the 52 books first published in 2003 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #15 on our Best Books of 2003 list.
Why it made the list: 484 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.8 out of 5 (26 ratings); 45 are reading it right now. The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 2003 list
- Thomas and Friends Reverend W. Awdry, #13
- Fire and Ice Erin Hunter, #14
- The Five People You Meet in Heaven Mitch Albom, #16
- Women Who Think Too Much Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, #17
See all Best Books of 2003 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 2002 Best Books of 2004.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 396 want to read it, 45 are reading it now and 43 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Ratings: 3.8 out of 5 from 26 Open Library ratings.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 77 | 55% |
| Reader love | 15 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 87 | 20% |
Questions about Eleven Minutes
When was Eleven Minutes published?
Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho was first published in 2003.
Was Eleven Minutes one of the best books of 2003?
Eleven Minutes is #15 on BookWard's Best Books of 2003, out of 52 2003 books that cleared our data bar. 484 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.8 out of 5 (26 ratings); 45 are reading it right now.
Why is Eleven Minutes on the Best Books of 2003 list?
484 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.8 out of 5 (26 ratings); 45 are reading it right now.
More of the best books of 2003
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix J. K. Rowling, #1
- Into the Wild Erin Hunter, #2
- The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini, #3
- Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! Mo Willems, #4
- A Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson, #5
- The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown, #6
See the full Best Books of 2003, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
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