"Veronica Decides to Die" by Paulo Coelho, summary

"Veronica Decides to Die" is a philosophical and psychological novel published in 1998. The story is based on the author’s personal experience, which was three times sent to a psychiatric hospital in Rio de Janeiro by his parents in the 1960s for rebellious behavior and unwillingness to follow a traditional career. The book is the second in the trilogy "And on the Seventh Day…," which also includes the novels "On the Banks of the Rio Piedra I Sat Down and Wept" (1994) and "The Devil and Senorita Prim" (2000). In 2009, director Emily Young released a film adaptation of the same name, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar.

Attempted suicide

On November 11, 1997, twenty-four-year-old Veronika, a resident of Ljubljana, decides to end her life. She meticulously cleans her room at a convent, brushes her teeth, and goes to bed, intending to take four packs of powerful sleeping pills. Friends help her obtain the medication. She refuses to fall from a roof or slit her wrists, wanting to spare her parents the sight of her mutilated body. The reasons for this drastic step are total boredom, the monotony of everyday life, the inevitability of aging, and a profound sense of powerlessness in the face of the world’s imperfections.

While waiting for the pills she swallowed to take effect, Veronica flips through a random magazine. An article about a computer game begins with the question: "Where is Slovenia?" Outraged by foreigners’ complete ignorance of her homeland, she writes a letter to the editor. This text becomes a peculiar farewell note, intended to puzzle the public and conceal the true motives for her departure. Soon, the sleeping pills take effect, and Veronica loses consciousness.

Waking up at the Villete Clinic

A girl awakens in the Villete mental hospital, established in 1991 on the premises of former army barracks immediately after Slovenia’s independence. The institution was notorious for its capitalist abuses: wealthy families paid to hide unwanted relatives there, while debtors and criminals hid there from the courts.

Paulo Coelho inserts an authorial digression into the narrative. The writer recalls learning Veronica’s story from her namesake in Paris and recounts his own stay at Dr. Eiras’s private clinic from 1965 to 1967.

Doctors give Veronica some devastating news. Due to a prolonged coma caused by a massive dose of sleeping pills, she has developed ventricular necrosis. The heart muscle is irreparably damaged, leaving her with five days to a week at most to live.

Searching for meaning and getting to know the inhabitants

The news of her imminent physical death evokes in the girl a fear of agonizing anticipation. Lost in thought, Veronica realizes how dull her former life was: constant compromises, fear of failure, working in the library instead of music lessons, and meaningless relationships. Wanting to hasten the end, she seeks poison.

Veronica becomes close to her patient, Zedka, who suffers from depression. Zedka tells a parable about a sorcerer who poisoned the royal spring with the water of madness, and about a king who drank the water to rule his "normal" subjects as equals. Zedka undergoes insulin shock, during which her soul undergoes astral travel, freeing her from a long-held longing for her first unrequited love.

Veronica tries to obtain pills through the "Brotherhood," a group of recovered patients who prefer to remain within the walls of Villete to escape the responsibilities and problems of life. The group’s taunts infuriate her: she slaps an older man. This outburst awakens long-suppressed feelings of anger and resentment.

Night concerts and the theory about Kuporos

At night, Veronica goes out into the empty hallway and plays the piano. Through music, she releases her pent-up hatred for her dull existence, societal stereotypes, and even her mother, whose love forced her to abandon her dream of becoming a professional pianist. The only listener to these concerts is Eduard, a young schizophrenic, completely lost in his own reality.

The girl speaks with the clinic’s chief physician, Dr. Igor. The psychiatrist is writing a dissertation on "Vitriol," a poison of bitterness that is secreted in the human body due to fear of reality and gradually destroys the will to live. He explains that social norms are often a historical accident, like the arrangement of letters on a QWERTY keyboard or Uccello’s reverse clock in Florence.

Another of Veronica’s interlocutors is Marie, a former lawyer who was admitted to a mental institution due to panic attacks. Marie encourages Veronica to cast aside her fears and explore the depths of her sexual desires. That night, by the piano, a naked Veronica masturbates in front of Eduard, experiencing orgasms and feeling completely liberated from social taboos.

Return to life and medical confidentiality

In the morning, Veronica asks Dr. Igor for some means of staying awake and the chance to spend the rest of her time outside. She wants to walk in the cold, kiss her mother, and soak up the last moments of her life.

Eduard emerges from his isolation. At seventeen, living in Brazil with his diplomat parents, he suffered a bicycle accident and decided to devote himself to painting, wanting to depict "paradisal visions." However, under pressure from his father, the young man abandoned his vocation, leading to a split personality.

After a riot in the hallway, the orderlies subject Eduard to electroconvulsive therapy. Veronica is nearby, helping him retain his memory. This event shakes the residents: Marie and Zedka decide to leave. Marie writes a farewell letter to the Brotherhood, urging the group to leave the artificial aquarium, and sets off on a humanitarian mission to Bosnia.

That night, Eduard and Veronica escape. The young couple go to an expensive restaurant in Ljubljana, drink vintage wine, and climb to a castle on a hill. Veronica confesses her love to Eduard and makes him promise to paint again. After falling asleep in the fresh air, they awaken in the morning to the voice of a policeman. Veronica discovers she is still alive.

At this time, Dr. Igor receives news of the patients’ escape. Analyzing what happened, the doctor is triumphant: his scientific experiment was a success. Veronica’s heart was initially completely healthy. The doctor administered the drug phenotal daily, which provoked asthma attacks, to instill in her the idea of her inevitable death. The awareness of her impending death helped the girl completely eliminate the poison of Bitterness from her system and gain an irrepressible desire to live.