If you do not pay enough heed to the profound wisdom of the book, then The Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelho is just a fiction written in a documentary style. We follow the life of Athena as told by people who knew her: her mother, her ex-husband, a lover journalist, an actress who despised her, her teacher, and others. We are made aware of the fact that Athena was murdered; however, the cause of murder is unknown. This could very well appear to be a murder mystery, but the plot quickly establishes that The Witch of Portobello would not fit into any conventional genre.