Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho’s ‘Veronika Decides to Die’ is a book that teaches you to appreciate life and be grateful for being alive. The plot revolves around Veronika, a young and beautiful girl from Slovenia, who has the perfect life- money, a job, a loving family, and a good number of boyfriends, yet there’s something inside her that needs to be filled- a void that continues to trouble her. So one fine morning, she gulps down a few sleeping pills and decides to die. However, things clearly do not go the way she plans them, and she wakes up to find herself in Villete, a mental hospital- the country’s lunatic asylum where she is informed that her plan has been postponed by a few days; though she hasn’t died immediately, she has damaged her heart greatly, and therefore, she’s got only a few more days to live. Villete is more of a purgatory, where she hangs in until death is finally conferred upon her, and where she meets people who awaken her soul.