THE WINNER STANDS ALONE is a masterpiece: it talks about values lost and never found again. It looks like a thriller, but it is not - the characters are trapped and manipulated by the people Coelho calls "The Superclass". Once more Coelho made it. And I also believe Coelho is one of the few writers that are always exploring unknown seas, instead of repeating the same plot over and over again. Kudos to him.