Veronika Decides to Die (Portuguese: Veronika Decide Morrer) is a novel by Paulo Coelho. It tells the storey of 24-year-old 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). It is based around 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.