paulo coelho veronika decides to die review

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. There were a lot of people there, though, and they hadn’t had a chance to talk in depth about anything.

They had exchanged a few words and she had ended up being invited by his publisher to join them for supper. 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 Paulo Coelho, a Brazilian writer she had happened to meet at a lecture in the café at the Grand Union Hotel. 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. However, with each pill she swallowed, she felt more convinced: after five minutes the packs were empty. Instead of crushing them and mixing them 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. She picked up the four packs of sleeping pills from her bedside table. She carefully cleaned the room that she rented in a convent, turned off the heating, brushed her teeth and lay down.

On 11 November 1997, Veronika decided that the moment to kill herself had – at last! – arrived. For this novel, the central theme seemed to revolve around how strict rules in our society force people to behave abnormally, but once a person is labeled 'insane', they have the freedom to behave and live as they want. Rather than subtly stating a theme in his books, he tends to shout it out repeatedly. Although the premise of this book was interesting, I am not a huge fan of Coelho. He uses this information to frame many of the events of the book and provide a very different viewpoint of how we view and treat the 'insane'. As a young man, he spent several weeks in a mental hospital. My copy of the book included some interesting information on Paulo Coelho's life. This knowledge of her imminent death gives Veronika new insight and a different perspective on life. The suicide attempt fails, but the pills have caused irreparable damage to her heart and she only has 1 week to live. The title character of this book, Veronika, tries to commit suicide through an overdose of pills.

Paulo coelho veronika decides to die review