Paulo Coelho was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on August 24, 1947. As a teenager, Coelho wished to become a writer, but his mother had a different opinion when he told her, “Dear; your father is an engineer, a logical, practical man, with a very clear vision of the world.” Do you really know what it means to be a writer?”
At the age of sixteen, Coelho's introversion and resistance to the traditional ways of life led his parents to send him to a mental institution, which led him to flee from it three times before he was finally released from it at the age of twenty! Coelho later commented, "It wasn't that they (his parents) wanted to hurt me, they just didn't know what to do with me. They didn't do it to destroy me, but to keep me." and in accordance with the wishes of his parents; Coelho goes to law school and abandons his old dream of becoming a writer. and one year later; Coelho left school and lived a bohemian life, traveling to many places; South America, North Africa, Mexico, Europe, and began taking drugs in the 1960s. Upon his return to Brazil, Coelho worked as a songwriter for some singers, and was arrested in 1974 on charges of "subversive acts" during the prevailing military rule at the time, which considered Coelho's lyric compositions a dangerous "leftist"! Coelho also worked as an actor, journalist and theater director before turning entirely to writing.
Veronika Decides to Die pdf by Paulo Coelho
In his latest international bestseller, the celebrated author of The Alchemist addresses the fundamental questions asked by millions: What am I doing here today? and Why do I go on living?
Twenty-four-year-old Veronika seems to have everything she could wish for: youth and beauty, plenty of attractive boyfriends, a fulfilling job, and a loving family. Yet something is lacking in her life. Inside her is a void so deep that nothing could possibly ever fill it. So, on the morning of November 11, 1997, Veronika decides to die. She takes a handful of sleeping pills expecting never to wake up.
Naturally Veronika is stunned when she does wake up at Villete, a local mental hospital, where the staff informs her that she has, in fact, partially succeeded in achieving her goal. While the overdose didn't kill Veronika immediately, the medication has damaged her heart so severely that she has only days to live.
The story follows Veronika through the intense week of self-discovery that ensues. To her surprise, Veronika finds herself drawn to the confinement of Villete and its patients, who, each in his or her individual way, reflect the heart of human experience. In the heightened state of life's final moments, Veronika discovers things she has never really allowed herself to feel before: hatred, fear, curiosity, love, and sexual awakening. She finds that every second of her existence is a choice between living and dying, and at the eleventh hour emerges more open to life than ever before.
In Veronika Decides to Die, Paulo Coelho takes the reader on a distinctly modern quest to find meaning in a culture overshadowed by angst, soulless routine, and pervasive conformity. Based on events in Coelho's own life, Veronika Decides to Die questions the meaning of madness and celebrates individuals who do not fit into patterns society considers to be normal. Poignant and illuminating, it is a dazzling portrait of a young woman at the crossroads of despair and liberation, and a poetic, exuberant appreciation of each day as a renewed opportunity.