Veronika decides to die

English language

Published April 12, 2000

ISBN:: 978-0-00-710346-1

(1 review)

Veronika Decides to Die (Portuguese: Veronika Decide Morrer) is a novel by Paulo Coelho. It tells the story of Veronika, a 24-year-old Slovenian who appears to have everything in life going for her, but who decides to kill herself. This book is partly based on Coelho's experience in various mental institutions (see the biography Confessions of a Pilgrim by Juan Arias), and deals with the subject of madness. The gist of the message is that "collective madness is called sanity".

8 editions

biblo_czar reviewed Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho

Coelho made me think asylum is the best place to stay

5 stars

After reading the Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, I decided that it was time to read another of his works.

This book was about Veronika and how she had decided to die, and attempted suicide. She awakens from her attempt to realize that the attempt was not successful, but that she had cause damage to her heart with the medication that she had tried to overdose on and that she would die within days. ”An awareness of death encourages us to live more intensely." It talks about death and life and the meaning of them, madness and insanity and why would we actually say that someone is “mad”. It just blows your mind. I really loved the main idea/plot of the book and the message it tried to send. I also liked How it takes place in a mental institution