Veronika Decides To Die

Veronika Decides to Die (1998) is a novel of ideas by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho. The novel follows Veronika, a 24-year-old Slovenian woman who decides to die in 1997 because her perfectly normal world has left her apathetic toward life. After Veronika attempts suicide, she finds herself in a psychiatric hospital called Villete. Villete was established in the rift opened by the civil war in Yugoslavia to generate a profit from the issues of the upper classes, who distrust Slovenia’s socialized medicine. The head doctor of the facility, Dr. Igor, lies to Veronika and tells her that her suicide attempt has left her with a week to live. Igor is using Veronika in an unethical medical study to analyze what he calls “Vitriol,” which he believes leads people to develop mental health conditions.

Over the course of the week, Veronika rediscovers her love of life as death looms. She meets a myriad of people in Villete struggling with their own mental health conditions and falls in love with a man named Eduard. After the week, Veronika escapes Villete with a new lease on life. Veronika Decides to Die explores the human condition, a frequent analysis at the heart of Coelho’s work, through the themes of Death and Human Mortality,

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