I am a huge fan of Paulo Coelho. I have read most of his novels and found every one of them to be thought provoking and un-putdownable. And The Devil and Miss Prym was no exception. I read the entire novel in a day and loved every moment of it. This one is an interesting study of human morality. Or lack thereof. Books with this topic always make me think of Lord of the Flies which I think is the ultimate story of human nature.

Playing the part of a charitable soul was only for those who were afraid of taking a stand in life. It is always far easier to have faith in your own goodness than to confront others and fight for your rights. It is always easier to hear an insult and not retaliate than have the courage to fight back against someone stronger than yourself; we can always say we're not hurt by the stones others throw at us, and it's only at night - when we're alone and our wife our husband or our school friend is asleep - that we can silently grieve over our own cowardice.

...

Not a single voice in the crowd was raised against the choice. The mayor was glad because they had accepted his authority; but the priest knew that this could be a good or a bad sign, because silence does not always mean consent - usually all it meant was that people were incapable of coming up with an immediate response. If someone did not agree, they would later torture themselves with the idea that they had accepted without really wanting to, and the consequences of that would be grave.

There's something about Paulo Coelho that I completely connect with and I cannot describe in words.