Twenty-four-year-old Veronika seems to have everything -- youth and beauty, boyfriends and a loving family, a fulfilling job. But something is missing in her life. So, one cold November morning, she takes a handful of sleeping pills expecting never to wake up. But she does -- at a mental hospital where she is told that she has only days to live. ...more
Imprint. Veronika believes her life is entirely meaningless. She takes an overdose of sleeping tablets in an attempt to end her life. Instead of dying, she wakes up (five days later) in a mental hospital. But her dismay worsens as she experiences a heart attack, and is told that the damage is so severe that she only has five days to live.
When Paulo Coelho (The Alchemist) was a young man, his parents had him committed to mental hospitals three times because he wanted to be an artist--an unacceptable profession in Brazil at the time. During his numerous forced incarcerations he vowed to write some day about his experiences and the injustices of involuntary commitment. In this fable-l...more