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Tuesday 3 March 2015

Let me begin by saying that I had underestimated the power of books written by Paulo Coelho for some unknown reason. This specific book changed my pre-conceptions (miss-conceptions, so to speak) about the author and his work and that's exactly why I'm writing this review. Veronica Decides to Die is a book by Paulo Coelho which has been in my to-read list since last 3-4 years. For some reason, the subject of this book fascinated me.

It's a story of a young girl, Veronica, who decides to die. At first, author deals with veronica's reasons behind committing suicide which he does in excruciating details. He delves deeper inside mind and soul of veronica and makes you wonder whether life is worth living.

But, her suicide attempt fails and she lands up in a mental hospital. There, she meets a few inmates and every one of them has a different but interesting story to be there. In the mental hospital, just when veronica is planning another attempt at her life, to her surprise and readers', she comes to know that she has only a week to live.

And that's when the author starts to weave a web of words around the life in mental hospital, patients and their extra-ordinary stories and amazes you with his incredible power to hold your attention up to a level where even your partners won't be able to seduce you into putting the book down.

Author tells us incredible and extra-ordinary stories of patients and makes you question the phenomenon commonly known as: Insanity. One by one, he introduces more patients and their stories and forces you to wonder whether there's anything wrong in being 'insane'.

The most important theme Paulo dealt with in this book is 'what it means to be insane'. He deals with the subject of insanity, being different and normal in excruciating details and forces you through an exhausting journey in a desert and leaves thirsty for more answers but in the end does offer some.  

To my surprise, this book's central theme is entirely author's own earlier life experiences in mental hospital. This is a book which takes you through the darkness of the night and then the sun sets in with a promise of a distant land with a ray of hope, love and happiness.

This powerful book is a must read for everyone who wants to delve deeper inside the psyche of normal, different and insane people. It is a book recommended for all those who have had to face depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts etc at least once in their life. This book will make you question the dogmatic society and give you a ray of hope in an 'insane world'.

Finally, I rate this book 4 out of 5 mainly for surprising me with the incredible insights into the mind and soul of the subject 'insanity' and forcing me to re-think about true meaning of my life.


~RP  

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