保罗·科埃略 (Paulo Coelho) 于 1947 年 8 月 24 日出生在巴西里约热内卢。科埃略十几岁时就想成为一名作家，但他的母亲对她说：“亲爱的；你父亲是一名工程师，一个逻辑清晰、务实的人，对世界有着非常清晰的视野。”你真的知道成为一名作家意味着什么吗？”
十六岁那年，科埃略的内向和对传统生活方式的抗拒，让他的父母把他送到了精神病院，这让他三度逃离，终于在二十岁出狱！科埃略后来评论说：“他们（他的父母）并不是想伤害我，他们只是不知道该拿我怎么办。他们这样做不是为了摧毁我，而是为了留住我。”并按照其父母的意愿；科埃略去了法学院，放弃了成为作家的旧梦想。一年后；科埃略离开学校，过着波西米亚式的生活，旅行到许多地方；南美洲、北非、墨西哥、欧洲，并于 1960 年代开始吸毒。回到巴西后，科埃略为一些歌手担任词曲作者，并于 1974 年因当时军事统治期间的“颠覆行为”而被捕，认为科埃略的抒情作品是危险的“左派”！在完全转向写作之前，科埃略还担任过演员、记者和戏剧导演。
Veronika Decides to Die pdf 保罗·科埃略
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.