“The two hardest tests on the spiritual road are the patience to wait for the right moment and the courage not to be disappointed with what we encounter.” ...

From the author of The Alchemist, comes a work worth every penny and moment of reading .

24, beautiful, lovers ,a steady job ,an university degree and loving family and friends.Veronika decides to die. She settles down with her bottle of pills and concentrates on savouring the delicious moments between life and death. The tragic comedy is that she ends up not falling asleep due to the tranquillizers but ends up vomiting. Then comes the darkness, every so often unconsciousness and finally the end.

But of course , she lives to wake up in Villete,the dreaded mental institution. She insists that she isn't mad but then again who isn't? Given the news that her heart is beyond repair and her days are numbered, her initial wish to die is successful. Days shorten and so does her will as she begins to see things from a different perspective. Existence begins to bother her, the beauty of nature shines through the grey Ljubljana mornings, when suddenly one day Veronika wakes up and realises with horror that things are changing inside her… that in the face of death, her survival instincts have begun to take hold.She finds true love in a prodigal schizophrenic, friendship and couselling from a depressed lawyer and learns to live for herself. Ironically, it is Death who teaches her how to live.....

200 pages of Paulo Coelho does make one feel grateful to be alive. This is a book I would recommend to anyone who has ever thought of suicide and those of us who are tired and exhausted. I believe it has the power to draw many people away from that dark thought. Existence is a gift. Whether one thinks it is holy or not is entirely up to them, but life really is a blessing, a miracle, a cosmic phenomenon. Coelho points out in his novel that a change in perspective, no matter how slight or dramatic, can often tie a falling person tighter to the thread of life. In the words of Dr.Ignor of Villete , "Be crazy;l earn how to live different without fear”.