Why do people commit suicide? What’s the impulse that drives the mind of an individual, to end the life he has been living? Does he get tired of living the same, old, routine life and thus, decides to get rid of the monotony by doing something as outrageous as putting a fullstop to life? Is it a reaction of frustration, a weakness that the person attempts to overcome or a psychological impulse? Is wanting to die a disease, an odd reaction to certain event, an aggression or a spur of the moment decision? Paulo Coelho’s Veronica Decides to Die answers all these questions, making the readers roam through the minds of various individuals languishing in a mental hospital, some by choice, others through others’ decisions imposed on them.
The book tells the tale of 4 individuals; Veronica, Mari, Eduard and Zedka. Where Eduard is marked as Schizophrenic and admitted to Villette as his parents did not approve of his love for art rather normal course studies like others, Mari stands victim of the same, old, routine life, obsessed by the shadow of a lover that she once had but lost to time, there Zedka lives a depressant former lawyer, scared of dying in isolation.
Veronica, on the other hand, a normal suicide case that Dr.Igor says, is going to die soon, due to the irreversible effect of tranquillisers on her heart, stands as a symbol for all patients at the mental hospital, and her dying state before them, gives them an opportunity to rethink their priorities in life. Her stay at the place also makes Veronica think of what and why she had attempted what she had and what did she really want anyway. The best part is it’s ending that’s both bitter and sweet.
We all get depressed every once and a while and Veronica Decides to Die attempts to sooth out our raging nerves through Paulo Coelho’s ravishing tale of pain, misery, joy and solitude. Veronica Decides to Die, through it’s psychological wandering through human minds, that is the most complex of all jobs and that’s why Paulo Coelho’s no ordinary fiction writer, thus stands as a must-read for all!

—Uzma Zafar