VERONIKA DECIDES TO DIE by Paulo Coelho (Book Review)

VERONIKA DECIDES TO DIE by Paulo Coelho (Book Review)

Reviewed by Ali Mahar

The novel is based on personal experiences of writer (Paulo Coelho) in the mental hospital of Brazil in 1966.
Novel tells the story of young librarian girl Veronika who has everything in his life.  Steady Job… a good family… handsome boyfrieds etc. but still she is depressed because she finds nothing very special in her life. And she decides to die.
In order to end his life she choses a romantic way of suicide i.e. taking overdose of sleeping pills. But this does not work and she survives.  She is brought in Vilete mental hospital. Where she is told that sleeping pills have damaged his heart badly and now she has very constraint life.
She meets many interesting characters in Vilete hospital like Zedka, Mari, dr Igor, and the one who changes his life the young schizophrenic Edured.
After knowing that she has very limited life to live Veronika start doing all things she had enjoyed doing in her normal life. She plays piano, drink vine, masturbate severely in order to grab more and more sexual pleasure etc. in this way she tries to embrace life as possible as it can be.
Young schizophrenic Edurad loves to listen piano by her and gradually falls in love with her.
When dr Igor tells her that she has got 24 hours to live the life, after that she will die. Veronika wants to enjoy that precious time with her lover.
 Eduarad and Veronika escape the Villete hospital and they enjoy eating expensive foods, vine and climbing on high mountains.
Turning point in novel comes when Dr Igor is told that Veronika has survived.  He smiles joyfully because his experiment becomes successful. Actually Veronika was not going to die but she was told by the dr that she has very limited life. So that she could appreciate the beauty of life. Dr Igor give her injection which sentence her to short term heart attacks which makes Veronika think that she is going to die within few moments.
Novel concludes Veronika and Eduard celebrating life.
Novel is full with suspense and contains all the characteristics of Good Novel. A large amount of inspiring quotes can also be found in the book which inspires the readers to embrace and chill their lives in their own way.
Moral of the novel can be concluded in one line as: Every moment in our life is special and precious so we should value the life.
Ali Mahar
Hostel Ceiling, housing society phase one Jamshoro