Veronika Decides to Die

This is by far my favorite book ever. Paulo Coelho has a way of writing that takes you right into the story, and makes you feel ever piece of this story. Every time a friend asks me for a suggestion for a book, I immediately suggest this one. If not this one, another by Coelho, because he is an amazing author. He has opened my eyes in so many ways.

This book is truely amazing.Having read a few of Coelho's book I've come to know his style of writing and this book was a punch in the face in the way it handled the delicate issue of the mentally-ill in such a straight-forward un-orthodox way.This is the story of Vernika, who tries to commit suicide, fails, and is sent to a rough, secluded and horrible insane asylum, where she learns about life, the importance and the beauty of it...Just read it...

Having been recommended this book by a good friend of mine, who knew me as a lost young person in this world, I read the book not only to feel excited but also had a renewed outlook on life. There were many points in the book that still stick in my mind ever so clearly as if I had read it yesterday. But Paulo Coelho wrote that book in a way that made me say, 'yeah, how did he hit the nail so precisely?' Reading some passages gave me shivers because Paulo was so right. Many times, we tend to hold back on questioning or spilling our brains out for the sake of pleasing others because they would thing that we are crazy for asking such question. However, I have learnt a valuable lesson through this book - that is to be mad (mad in a good way)once in awhile. To do things once in awhile that we might not otherwise do and may never repeat but something that makes people say, 'He/She is MAD!'. Through this book also, I have come to realize that being myself and portraying the real me in a world filled with people who are extremely afraid to show their real feelings and expressions, is OK. I can be myself and be different and not feel as though it is a grave sin to be ME. - "Is Wanting to be different a serious illness?.....It is if you force yourself to be same as everyone else: it causes neuroses, pschoses and paranoia. It's a distortion of nature, it goes against God's laws, for in all the world's woods and forests, He did not create a single leaf the same as another." p. 153Paulo Coelho wrote it so well that I have come to conclude: You only live once. Therefore, enjoy life to the fullest!

This was published in paperback in Australia in 1999. I am commenting on the English language version.I absolutely love this book, and is my pick for fiction of the year for 1999.It was such a joy to read a book that was about life, without being maudlin or saccharine-sweetly moralistic. It most closely reminds me of the sort of work by people like Isabel Allende and Garcia Marquez. I will be looking for more by this author.Veronika and her friends really make you examine your own views of 'madness' and it moved me to examine how I react when confronted with people who display different, unexpected or confronting beaviour in public. I came to understand that I probably move away, avoid, because it is the sheer unpredicatability of what may occur. We usually operate within a comfort zone of familiarity with our own and others' EXPECTED responses to situations, and for something to do otherwise IS challenging.I wish all fiction was simultaneously as accessible - ie readable- and also leave something to think about, linger on. Not that everything has to be 'deep' or 'seriously profound', but it is like the difference between a nourishing, satisfying meal made from the best and freshest ingredients, and a fat-filled junk food takeaway.

Me encanto este libro. Me enseño el verdadero significado de vivir cada dia como si fuera el ultimo de mi vida. Me inspiro a darme la oportunidad de vivir uno de los momentos mas maravillosos de mi vida, donde sin escrupulos, ni tabus, ni inhibiciones, comparti mi ser, en plenitud con la persona que mas he querido en la vida. I loved this book. It tought me the real meaning of living every day as if it was the last one of my life. It inspired me to grant myself the opportunity to live through one of the most wonderful experiences of my life, where without scruples, taboes, nor inhibitions, I shared my self, my entire being with the person that I've loved the most in my life. YM, if you ever asked your self why? Because of this book, that is why.