MANILA, Philippines ? Paulo Coelho and serial killers: That?s a combination that is hard to imagine, but bizarrely, enough Coelho himself manages in his peculiar new book, and that?s not necessarily a good thing. ?The Winner Stands Alone? (HarperCollins, New York, 2009, 343) is unlike any Coelho book that wept, went on a pilgrimage, or tried alchemy before it.

?Don?t think about it, it?s done now. You have prepared yourself to go much further that this, so carry on. The girl will understand that her death was not in vain, but was a sacrifice in the name of a greater love.? That?s what?s going on in the head of ?Winner?s? main character, the wealthy Russian businessman Igor, who also happens to be a deluded psychopath.

As far as departures are concerned, this one has got to be one of the decade?s most audacious. Instead of a windswept countryside, Coelho lands the reader in the teeming streets of the Cannes Film Festival. Readers will also make the acquaintance of successful Muslim fashion designer Hamid Hussein, Hamid?s wife (and Igor?s ex-wife) Ewa, and a couple of unusual models named Gabriela and Jasmine.

Mission from God

Believing that he is on a mission from God, ex-Soviet soldier Igor has arrived in Cannes purely to send a message to Ewa and he intends to do it through a series of meticulous murders:

?Without you I don?t exist. Anything and anyone who tries to separate us or to destroy the little time we have together at this particular moment of time gets the treatment they deserve.? Ewa has arrived in Cannes unaware of what is pursuing her but she does remember why she left: ?She was more convinced than ever that this was not love. It was something sick and morbid, which she would either have to accept and live the rest of her life as a prisoner to fear, or else free herself as soon as possible.?

This is happening amid the gaudy trappings of the festival. Coelho writes lengthily with unalloyed disgust at every opportunity about the excesses of the Cannes lifestyle. Previous Coelho books have told us: Earthly success is bad and here that success is embodied by the Superclass, the elusive classification of what lies unseen but holds sway over Cannes. It?s one of the many wayward ghosts haunting ?Winner.?

?Since time immemorial, men have believed that being close to something unattainable and mysterious can bring blessings. That?s why people make pilgrimages to visit gurus and scared places.? It is, however, also true that standing close to something radioactive can bring death and that is why people stay far away from irradiated places.