The story begins in late 1997 and follows the story of Veronika – a twenty four year old woman living in Slovenia. The book begins with her attempted suicide : however, having overdosed on tranquilisers, she is discovered in time and taken to hospital before she dies. The hospital in question is Vilette – a well known asylum in Ljubljana. Although she has survived, she is told – due to the damage the tranquilisers have done to her heart – she only has about a week to live. Having always kept herself firmly under control, Veronika finds herself broadening her range of experiences and feelings, and gradually comes to see her life as something worth living. Her arrival in Vilette also has an impact on some of the asylum’s other patients – specifically, Eduard (a schizophrenic), Zedka (who suffers from depression) and Mari (who suffers from panic attacks).

This is an absolutely awful book : rather than “beautiful”, “poetic” or “inspiring”, I’ve never found writing so bland. Despite her situation, Coelho finds himself incapable of establishing any empathy with or sympathy for Veronika. In fact, I even think he wrote about the wrong character – Zedka’s story, in the hands of an author up to the task, is a story I’d rather have heard. Coelho’s decision to include himself in the story stank of ego, and the way that he wrote that section (“Paulo Coelho wanted to know all the details of what had happened” rather than “I wanted to know all the details of what had happened”) was incredibly irritating. The only apparent hobby the patients had – a solitary pastime known to some as ‘merchant banking’ – was given too high a profile : Veronika’s activities on this front were irrelevant and did nothing to help the story. Coelho may be writing this book based on experience – he has spent some time in an asylum as a patient. His parents, apparently, had him locked up when he decided to become an artist. Well, if his paintings were as bad as his books…