Veronika Decides to Die

Poster for the film adaptation

Veronika Decides to Die (Portuguese: Veronika Decide Morrer) is a novel by Paulo Coelho. It tells the story of 24-year-old Slovenian Veronika, who appears to have everything in life going for her, but who decides to kill herself. This book is partly based on Coelho's experience in various mental institutions (see the biography Confessions of A Pilgrim by Juan Arias), and deals with the subject of madness. The gist of the message is that "collective madness is called sanity".

Veronika Decides to Die has been adapted for theatre a number of times, and was also used in other artistic references.

Plot summary

Veronika is a beautiful young woman from Ljubljana, Slovenia who appears to have the perfect life, but nevertheless decides to kill herself by overdosing with sleeping pills. While she waits to die, she decides to read a magazine.

After seeing an article in the magazine which wittily asks "Where is Slovenia?," she decides to write a letter to the press justifying her suicide, the idea being to make the press believe that she has killed herself because people don't even know where Slovenia is. Her plan fails and she wakes up in Villete, a mental hospital in Slovenia, where she is told she has only a few days to live.

Her presence there affects all of the mental hospital's patients, especially Zedka, who has clinical depression; Mari, who suffers from panic attacks; and Eduard, who has schizophrenia, and with whom Veronika falls in love. During her internment in Villete she realizes that she has nothing to lose and can therefore do what she wants, say what she wants and be who she wants without having to worry about what others think of her; as a mental patient, she is unlikely to be criticized. Because of this new-found freedom Veronika experiences all the things she never allowed herself to experience, including hatred and love.

In the meantime, Villete's head psychiatrist, Dr. Igor, attempts a fascinating but provocative experiment: can you "shock" someone into wanting to live by convincing her that death is imminent? Like a doctor applying defibrillator paddles to a heart attack victim, Dr. Igor's "prognosis" jump-starts Veronika's new appreciation of the world around her.

Editions

Veronika Decides to Die has sold its rights in 46 languages: Albanian, Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (Traditional), Chinese (Simplified), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Farsi, Finnish, French, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malayalam, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.

Adaptations

• Veronika Decides to Die has been adapted into a screenplay by Das Films with Muse Productions and Velvet Steamroller Entertainment. Shooting began on May 12, 2008 and the movie was released in 2009 with Emily Young directing. Sarah Michelle Gellar plays Veronika.^[1] Jonathan Tucker also stars^[2] along with David Thewlis, Melissa Leo and Erika Christensen.^[3] The movie has the same name as the book.

• The Japanese movie, "ベロニカは死ぬことにした (Beronika wa shinu koto ni shita)"^[4] is also based on Veronika Decides to Die.

• The title was used by Danish metal band Saturnus in 2006, whose third studio album was titled Veronika Decides To Die.

• The Japanese rock band Aqua Timez's song "Velonica" is based on Veronika Decides To Die.
• The Canadian rock band Billy Talent's song "Saint Veronika" is based on Veronika Decides To Die.
• The Pakistani movie Love Mein Gum directed by Reema Khan is also based upon Veronika Decides To Die.
• In 2004, the Sons of Beckett Theater Company in Los Angeles, California, adapted the book into a stage play. The direction and adaptation were by Erin McBride Africa.
• The UK Punk/Ska band No Comply's song Veronika Decides to Die is based on the book.

References