One day, ironically after meeting Paulo Coelho, Veronika decides to die. She takes sleeping tablets one by one, slips into unconsciousness, then wakes in Villete, a much feared mental asylum in Slovenia, to be told her heart has suffered irreparable damage and she will die in five days time.
Like many of us, Veronika lives a mediocre, meaningless life, a life with no meaning, no purpose. That is why she decides to die. In Villete, she learns what it is to be mad, and how madness can liberate one to be oneself.
Many of the people in Villete, are there of their own volition. Yes, they are mad, but in Villete, their madness is acceptable, they can do as they please because they are mad.
Reading works by Paulo Coelho, it is often difficult to know, is one reading a novel, a personal memoir, or a mix of both.
In Veronika Decides to Die, Paulo Coelho is referred to in third person. Is this Paulo Coelho the writer, author of Veronika Decides to Die, or a different Paulo Coelho?
Paulo Coelho was three times committed to a mental institution where he was subjected to electro convulsive therapy. He wanted to be a writer, his parents thought he was mad.
On leaving the mental institution for the last time, Paulo Coelho vowed to write of his experiences, but only after the death of his parents.
On learning of the experience of Veronika through a friend, he decided to use it as the opportunity to put his own experience into words. Paulo also discusses this painful period in his life during conversations with Juan Arias, the closest we come to a biography. [see Paulo Coelho]
Veronika Decides to Die is a tale of despair, but also of hope. It is also a tale of Impossible Love.
We are all in our own personal prison of conformity. If we allowed ourselves to be a little bit mad, we could be ourselves, follow our destiny, follow the example of Santiago in The Alchemist.
Veronika Decides to Die is the second novel in the And on the Seventh Day trilogy. The other two being By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept and The Devil and Miss Prym.
Veronika has seven days in which to live after a unsuccessful suicide attempt. Pilar has seven days in which to save her soul. Miss Prym is engaged in a fight with the Devil, an epic struggle between Good and Evil, seven days in which to save the village of Viscos.
A copy of Veronika Decides to Die has been registered as a BookCrossing book. [see BCID 5476539]
BookCrossing books are released into the wild and their progress checked on the Internet via a unique BookCrossing ID (BCID).
The lovely picture used to illustrate this page was supplied by Valhalla to Paulo Coelho. [see LoveRing II]