Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1181 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09-04
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
"On 11 November 1997, Veronika decided that the moment to kill herself had--at last!--arrived": so begins Paulo Coelho's extraordinary new novel, Veronika Decides to Die. Renowned for the international success of The Alchemist, Coelho has secured his reputation as an outstanding storyteller and a key figure in world literature (his work has been translated into over 40 languages). Translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa, Veronika Decides to Die is a compelling story of a woman's struggle with and against life, told with Coelho's wit, subtlety and economy. On the track of whatever it is that makes life worth living, Coelho plots Veronika's fate with infinite care, weaving the mystery of her decision to take her own life into the themes of national identity--Veronika is a citizen of Slovenia, "that strange country that no one seemed quite able to place"--and madness.

Veronika does not die; instead, she wakes up in Villette--the "famous and much-feared lunatic asylum"--only to be told that, having damaged her heart irreparably, she has just a few days to live. What she faces now is a waiting game and the strange world of Villette: the rules and regulations which govern the lives of its inmates and the doctors who treat them. Coelho's question may be a familiar one: crudely, who, or what, is mad? But his fiction is a remarkable, sometimes chilling, response to it. "Everyone has an unusual story to tell" is the starting-point of the new treatment initiated at Villette by the enigmatic Dr Igor; it's also the insight from which this book takes off to explore the impact of a "slow, irreparable death" on a young woman and the mad men and women around her. --Vicky Lebeau

Synopsis
The new novel from internationally acclaimed author Paulo Coelho -- a dramatic story of love, life and death that shows us all why every second of our existence is a choice we all make between living and dying. Veronika has everything she could wish for. She is young and pretty, has plenty of boyfriends, a steady job, a loving family. Yet she is not happy; something is lacking in her life, and one morning she decides to die. She takes an overdose of sleeping pills, only to wake up some time later in the local hospital. There she is told that her heart is damaged and she has only a few days to live. The story follows Veronika through these intense days as to her surprise she finds herself experiencing feelings she has never really felt before. Against all odds she finds herself falling in love and even wanting to live again...

Excerpted from Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho. Copyright © 2000. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
On 11 November 1997, Veronika decided that the moment to kill herself had - at last! - arrived. She carefully cleaned the room that she rented in a covent, turned off the heating, brushed her teeth and lay down.

She picked up the four packs of sleeping pills form her bedside table. Instead of crushing them and mixing the with water, she decided to take them one by one, because there is always a gap between intention and action, and she wanted to feel free to turn back half way. However, with each pill she swallowed, she felt more convinced: after five minutes the packs were empty.

Since she didn't know exactly how long it would take her to lose consciousness, she had placed on the bed that month's issue of a French magazine, Homme, which had just arrived in the library where she worked. She had no particular interest in computer science, but, as she leafed through the magazine, she came across an article about a computer game (one of those CD-Roms), created by Paul Coelho, a Brazilian writer she had happened to meet at a lecture in the cafi at the Grand Union Hotel. They had exchanged a few words and she had ended up being invited by his publisher to join them for supper. There were a lot of people there, though, and they hadn't had a chance to talk in depth about anything.

The fact that she had met the author, however, led her to think that he was part of her world, and that reading an article about his work could help pass the time. While she was waiting for her death, Veronika started reading about computer science, a subject in which she was not the least bit interested, but then that was in keeping with what she had done all her life, always looking for the easy option, for whatever was nearest to hand. Like that magazine for example.

To her surprise, though, the first line of text shook her out of her natural passivity (the tranquillizers had not yet dissolved in her stomach, but Veronika was, by nature, passive), and, for the first time in her life, it made her ponder the truth of saying that was very fashionable amongst her friends: 'nothing in this world happens by chance.'

Why that first line, at precisely the moment when she had begun to die? What was the hidden message she saw before her, assuming there are such things as hidden messages rather than mere coincidences.

Underneath an illustration of the computer game, the journalist began his article by asking: 'Where is Slovenia?'

Customer Reviews

Will tomorrow always be there?
A complicated story of a girl, who decides to die. It is far from corny, and is in reality much more insightful. I personally picked it up and dropped it about 10 times before finally managing to start it. My grandmother's recent passing made me think it would not be a pleasant read. Turns out it was, even in that context.
I loved it because it made me pause, and think, and realise, that I should not take tomorrow for granted. And neither should you. It's one of those books that you read once and they change you. Their lessons can never be forgotten.
Highly recommended reading.

An interesting tale
I really enjoyed reading this book. It is the sort of book that makes you think about the subject matter. It's about a young girl who is bored with her life and unable to bear living a moment longer in the monotony of her existence so she decides to kill herself. She then wakes up to find she has been taken to a mental hospital and is told that she only has a few days to live as the pills she has taken have irreversibly damaged her heart. During the few days she spends in the mental hospital knowing she will soon die, she begins to think about why she wanted to die and she discovers her true purpose in life. The story does not only follow Veronika's life story but also the interesting stories behind why some of the other patients in the mental hospital are there. It questions the definition of madness. The message in the book seems to be that most people don't find their true purpose in life because most people just lives their lives in the way they are expected to or in the way other people want them to.

Uplifting
Beautifully written and unconventional, despite it's rather gloomy sounding title, 'Veronika Decides to Die', is a truly upbeat and life affirming book. It manages to be deep and philosophical without being dull, taking on serious topics about the nature of humanity whilst remaining completely readable and grounded in everyday experiences which we can all relate to.

Coelho writes economically, focussing strongly on just a few characters and doing justice to each. It is refreshingly short, with no words going to waste. Coelho knows what he wants to say and how to say it without feeling the need to 'pad out' his book with unneccessary subplots. It's an attribute some other writers could do with paying attention to.

Anyone who has experienced mental illness will relate to many of the themes in the book, but even those who haven't are sure to find themselves nodding in agreement with the insightful comments about human nature in general. It is worth noting, however, that none of the 'mad' people in the story seem to suffer from severe forms of depression/schizophrenia and that some people with experience of the true horror of these illnesses may find the 'cure' for mental patients described in the book rather trite.

That aside, it is an uplifting tale and one that is highly readable. Like all Coelho's books, it makes you think about who you are and examine your own life in more detail than normal. I expect there will be some who dislike it - all books of this nature can cause strong feelings, which may not all be positive. But I found it deeply moving and I would recommend it to anyone.