Eleven Minutes

"Love is a terrible thing that will make you suffer..." So says Maria, a young Brazilian girl convinced from an early age that she will never find true love. A chance meeting in Rio takes her to Geneva, but the glittering life she hoped for was a fantasy. The reality - selling herself to survive - is a dehumanising grind that pushes her further away from real love, towards a fascination with pure physical pleasure. But when her emotioanl barriers are tested by a handsome young painter, she msust choose between the dark path she is on and risking everything to find her "inner light". Can she move beyond the meeting of bodies to a meeting of minds of even souls - to a place where sex itself is scared? This daring nes novel sees the author of The Alchemist at hist best - challenging our prejudices, opening our minds and keeping us utterly enthralled.