I took this book because I wanted to read in English and there aren't so many books in English language around me and my friends here in Lleida. I read it in November 2006.
I'm not specially fan of Coelho, so I didn't start the book that motivated. Besides that, I finished it and enjoyed it more and more as soon as the end was coming. It tells the story of Veronika, a Slovenian who seemed to have a normal life. Boring though. That's the worst. The boredom. So she decides to kill herself. She isn't successful and she was took to a mental hospital where most of the book takes part.
There she meets several patients who, like her, had normal life but suddenly had a breakpoint in their lives and got "ill". Many of them are not really ill... but just they enjoy living in there because they can behave how they want, without prejudices.
To me, that's the core of the book. Living without prejudices. Can we do that in our normal life or society is so strong that we feel shame to behave spontaneously?
By the way, my favorite character is Dr. Igor. Why? Definitely, he is the smartest. Not because his knowledge in medicine...
I would recommend this book to those who, soon or later, feel that their life is passing by such a narrow path.
Un dia apunt de viatjar cap Itàlia i havent acabat el que ja tenia, vaig agafar aquest llibre de na Vero amb l'únic objectiu de distreure'm durant les hores de viatge.
