The 58-year-old author, whose books focus on religious mysticism, said at a news conference in Moscow that he was on a "pilgrimage", during which he would spend three months away from home. After starting in Ukraine, he also plans to visit Italy, Bulgaria, Germany and Tunisia.
Coelho said he was doing the pilgrimage to mark 20 years since he completed Camino de Santiago, an ancient Christian pilgrimage to St. James' Cathedral at Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain.
During his journey across Russia, Coelo plans to hold signing sessions in bookshops in cities including Yekaterinburg in the Urals, Novosibirsk and Irkutsk in Siberia, the Far East port of Vladivostok, and several small towns.
Coelho said that, as well as meeting readers in remote Russian cities, he would be fulfilling a personal dream by traveling on the Trans-Siberian Railway.
The author of international bestsellers The Alchemist, The Valkyries, and The Pilgrimage, and The Manual of the Warrior of Light last held book signings in Russia in September 2002. Coelo's official Web site put his sales in Russia during the last visit at 250,000 in the space of two weeks.
