Embittered by her first experiences of love, a young Brazilian girl travels to Geneva in search of fame and fortune and finds herself working as a prostitute before her beliefs about sex and romance are challenged by her relationship with a young painter. By the author of The Alchemist. Reader's Guide available. Reprint. 75,000 first printing. "The book casts a curiously sweet spell." - Entertainment Weekly Eleven Minutes tells the story of Maria, a young girl from a Brazilian village whose first innocent brushes with love leave her heartbroken. At a tender age, she becomes convinced that she will never find true love, instead believing that "love is a terrible thing that will make you suffer." A chance meeting in Rio takes her to Geneva, where she dreams of finding fame and fortune, yet ends up working as a prostitute. In Geneva, Maria's despairing view of love is put to the test when she meets a handsome young painter. In this odyssey of self-discovery, Maria must choose between pursuing a path of darkness--sexual pleasure for its own sake--or risking everything to find her own inner light and the possibility of true love.