According to Paulo Coelho, The Winner Stands Alone is a photograph of the world we live in, captured in the form of a novel. The action, in accelerated rhythm, occurs in less than 24 hours during the Cannes Film Festival. Igor Dalev, a successful Russian entrepreneur, arrives in France determined to recover Ewa, his ex-wife and the great love of his life. Since Ewa is remarried to Hamid Hussein, a stylist and star of the fashion circuit, Igor becomes increasingly desperate, determined to get her attention by any means necessary. And so, crippled by jealousy and passion and, above all, a desire to impress Ewa, Igor becomes a serial killer. By killing innocent people, he believes he is destroying universes and hence demonstrating the strength of his feelings. Producers, consecrated actors, aspiring actresses, top models and stylists -- all of them are portrayed in a merciless portrait of luxury and of the Superclass, the elite who, by influencing people, define the directions of our days.

By providing the reader with details of how these characters -- all of them based on real-life people -- live and behave, Paulo Coelho turns his twelfth novel into a shrewd criticism of a world overrun by glamour and excess. But above all, The Winner Is Alone is a pulse-pounding, page-turning psycological thriller -- a striking departure for one of the world s best-loved authors.