“Anthology” comes from the Greek word that stands for garlands–a bouquet of flowers. An anthology, then, should be a sort of reminder of something else, a small token of something much larger. Coelho’s anthology, therefore, is not only a collection of texts or poems, but a gift, something arranged according to his sensitivities, to give to others.

Coelho’s selection is ordered according to the four elements, symbolizing both our world in all its directions, and the way we dwell in this world, the way we say it. In “Earth” we find writers as diverse as Oscar Wilde and D.H. Lawrence; in “Air” Nelson Mandela and Gabriel García Márquez; in “Fire” Rumi and Mary Shelley; in “Water” Hans Christian Andersen and Machiavelli.