Synopsis

A profound meditation on personal power and innocent dreams that are manipulated or undone by success, The Winner Stands Alone is set in the exciting worlds of fashion and cinema. Taking place over the course of twenty-four hours during the Cannes Film Festival, it is the story of Igor, a successful, driven Russian entrepreneur who will go to the darkest lengths to reclaim a lost love—his ex-wife, Ewa. Believing that his life with Ewa was divinely ordained, Igor once told her that he would destroy whole worlds to get her back. The conflict between an individual evil force and society emerges, and as the novel unfolds, morality is derailed. Meet the players and poseurs behind the scenes at Cannes—the Superclass of producers, actors, designers, and supermodels, as well as the aspiring starlets, has-been stars, and jaded hangers-on. Adroitly interweaving the characters' stories, Paulo Coelho uses his twelfth novel to paint an engrossing picture of a world overrun by glamour and excess, and shows us the possibly dire consequences of our obsession with fame.

What the Critics Say

INDIAreads Review
This is a great insight into the fashion and film glitterati and other industries and the way they are all interconnected. If you are an outsider to these industries, this book might not make a lot of sense at first, especially if you don't want to believe the realities they present. There is plenty of information in this book. However, if you are part of any of these industries or aspire to be part of them and to know how they really work, this is a book for you. The Winner stands alone is fantastic journey into the mechanism that drives today's modern world.

This is a book that will take you on a trip to a fantastic real place where the road, the ride or the car you are riding on, doesn't matter. More reality than fiction, it might just surprise you…