‘She was my teacher, charged with passing on the sacred mysteries, with awakening the unknown energy we all possess.’

--Andrea McCain, actress

‘Athena’s greatest problem was that she was a woman of the twenty-second century living in the twenty-first, and making no secret of the fact either. Did she pay a price? She certainly did.’

--Deidre O’Neill, known as Edda

‘No one places her dreams in the hands of those who might destroy them. No one, that is, but Athena.’

--Heron Rvan, journalist

How do we find the courage to be true to ourselves - even if we are unsure of who we are？

That is the central question posed by Paulo Coelho’s riveting new work, The Witch of Portobello. It is the story of Athena, a mysterious young woman born in Romania, raised in Beirut and living in London. Her life is told by the many who knew her well - or hardly at all.