Veronika Decides to Die

Are you ready to be uncomfortable?

Because that is exactly what Paulo Coelho's Veronika Decides to Die does to any reader. Challenge heavily their pre-set notions about life, death and insanity and explore the psyche of human beings in a deep and disturbing manner. If you think you have had insanity figured out well, then this book will do well to make you question yourself- because unlike Paulo's previous works, VDTD doesn't coat itself in a fairytale nor fable sequence that makes it an escape metaphor for a reader- instead, this book is straight out of life- by a matter of fact, it is indeed inspired by the real life story of a Slovenian woman.

VDTD deeply reveals and explores the system of working in human's minds, our systems that we set for ourselves, and also our notions- and the film equally travels in depth within the minds of psychiatric patients as well as the doctors and nurses who work in a psychaitric hospital.

Veronika is a young woman who works in a library in Slovenia and believes that her life is of no significance at all. The novel starts in a pulsating manner- straight up with a suicide attempt. Veronika attempts to kill herself, only to be admitted in the city's most notorious pyschiatric hospitals after surviving, and discovering that she actually has less than a week left to live because her heart has been severely damaged by the poison that she had consumed.

The novel deeply explores the psyche of many other patients in the hospital, including 'The Fraternity', a group of patients who are medically healed but choose to stay on in the hospital as they have gotten used to the inside environment.

This book will leave you disturbed for one, and will open you up to avenues of questioning life and the regular notions of the 'normal' society to add up.

A provocative, powerful novel this is. Brilliant work from Paulo!