Jostein Gaarder Boeken

De wereld van Sofie is een boek over de geschiedenis van onze westerse filosofie. Het geeft een onderhoudend en origineel beeld van de wereld van de eerste Griekse filosofen tot en met die van onze eigen tijd. Tegelijkertijd is het een spannende roman over twee ondernemende meisjes en een geheimzinnige briefschrijver. Over een speurtocht die tot antwoorden leidt die op hun beurt weer nieuwe vragen oproepen. Maar dat is niet erg: een echte filosoof blijft altijd vragen stellen.

Op een dag krijgt Georg een brief in handen die door zijn overleden vader Jan Olav aan hem is geschreven. Het is een lange, spannende, intense brief. Zijn vader haalt herinneringen op aan hun drieënhalf jaar samen. En hij schrijft een sprookje over het Sinaasappelmeisje - spannend, vol humor en ontroerend. Hoe hij haar toevallig heeft leren kennen en hoe hij verliefd op haar is geworden. Dat zij heel leuke jaren met elkaar hebben gehad, maar ook dat hij ongeneeslijk ziek werd. Eerst begrijpt Georg niet waarom zijn vader dit verhaal aan hem vertelt, maar dan wordt steeds duidelijker wie het Sinaasappelmeisje is - zijn moeder. Het sprookje heeft voor Georg dus verstrekkende gevolgen gehad, want hij zou er niet zijn geweest als zij elkaar niet hadden ontmoet. Maar Jan Olav vertelt niet alleen een sprookje, hij stelt zijn zoon ook vragen in deze brief. Moeilijke vragen voor Georg zoals of hij überhaupt voor een leven op aarde zou hebben gekozen als hij van begin af aan had geweten dat hij ook weer dood zou gaan. Georg besluit zijn vader antwoord te geven in de vorm van een boek - een boek dat hij samen met hem gaat schrijven.

Together with Hans Thomas,the reader finds out his past, on a glorious magical mystery tour which sets the mind whirring and the imagination flying.

Bestselling philosophy book is reimagined for the first time as a graphic novel One day, young Sophie finds a letter addressed to her that contains only one question: "Who are you?" Then there's another one asking, "Where does the world come from?" The sender of these letters remains a mystery, but the questions intrigue Sophie. This is the beginning of a strange correspondence that will lead the young girl on a coming-of-age quest to meet major figures of philosophy (Socrates, Plato, Descartes, Hegel, Sartre, etc.). In the first volume, Sophie begins by questioning the philosophers of Antiquity and goes all the way to those of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. This is the first of two volumes. In the second volume, she discovers metaphysical doubt while continuing on her way to modern times. This comic book adaptation of Jostein Gaarder's original book breathes new life into a cult classic.

Conversations about life and death, between a girl and an angel. As Cecelia lies ill in bed, and her family valiantly make their Christmas preparations in the knowledge that she is not going to get better, an angel steps through her window. The death os a teenage girl from cancer is, in Gardner's hands, an occasion to reflect on the meaning of life and to celebrate it.It is the springboard for a spirited and thoroughly engaging series of conversations between Cecelia and her angel, who likes to sit around and chat. As Cecelia thinks about her own experiences and prepares herself for dying, we see subtle changes in her and her relationships with her family. No one could fail to be moved by the ending, when the angel takes her by the hand and they fly away together. Jostein Gaarder is a profoundly optimistic writer who approaches the subject of death and loss with wisdom, compassion and the open minded and enquiring spirit that characterises all his work. This is a book that will bring comfort to the bereaved: but more than that, it continues the wonderful exploration of universal ideas that made SOPHIE'S WORLD great.

'My father died eleven years ago. I was only four then. I never thought I'd hear from him again, but now we're writing a book together' To Georg Røed, his father is no more than a shadow, a distant memory. But then one day his grandmother discovers some pages stuffed into the lining of an old red pushchair. The pages are a letter to Georg, written just before his father died, and a story, 'The Orange Girl'. But 'The Orange Girl' is no ordinary story - it is a riddle from the past and centres around an incident in his father's youth. One day he boarded a tram and was captivated by a beautiful girl standing in the aisle, clutching a huge paper bag of luscious-looking oranges. Suddenly the tram gave a jolt and he stumbled forward, sending the oranges flying in all directions. The girl simply hopped off the tram leaving Georg's father with arms full of oranges. Now, from beyond the grave, he is asking his son to help him finally solve the puzzle of her identity.

Panina Manina, a trapeze artist, falls and breaks her neck. As the ringmaster bends over her, he notices an amulet of amber around her neck, the same trinket he had given his own lost child, who was swept away in a torrent some sixteen years earlier. This tale is narrated by Petter, a precocious child and fantasist, and perhaps Jostein Gaarder's most intriguing character since Sophie. As an adult, Petter makes his living selling stories and ideas to professionals suffering from writers block. But as Petter sits spinning his tales, he finds himself in a trap of his own making.

Fifty years ago a girl disappeared from her home in Norway. She ran after a lamb and found herself travelling right across Europe to Palestine, and back through 2000 years to meet the Holy Family in Bethlehem. There she met angels, shepherds, wise men and other biblical characters who joined her on her pilgrimage; and she heard of many of the things that happened in the world in the last 2000 years. In present-day Norway, a boy acquires a strange old Advent calendar. Hidden in each of the windows is a tiny piece of paper. Little by little these pieces unfold the girl's story and as we learn what happened to her, another story is revealed - that of the strange old man who made the calender.

A playful and inventive work from the bestselling author of SOPHIE'S WORLD.

Jostein Gaarder is not one to shirk at the larger questions: who are we? and where does the world come from? In his latest novel, Maya , he once again addresses life, the universe and pretty much everything else, concentrating on the existence of God, the evolution of life as we know it, the nature of consciousness and the meaning behind it all. It's weighty stuff for a mere 300 or so pages of prose, and Gaarder is not entirely successful in dealing with these issues in a readable manner. The novel is set in Madrid and on the unspoiled Fijian island of Taveuini. Frank Andersen, a Norwegian evolutionary biologist who feels "oppressed by the grief that the lack of spirit and permanence in our existence brings", meets up with a beautiful Spanish Flamenco dancer, Ana, her companion Jose, and an English writer from Croydon, John Spoke. They then discuss the big issues. This is where the problem arises; there is too much discussion of ideas and not enough emotional involvement or development of characters. They exist merely as mouthpieces for different theories. Gaarder then adds a bewildering supernatural dimension. There is Ana and Jose's manifesto, a mystical dialogue that describes the creation and evolution process in a series of self-consciously obscure metaphors to consider; hints of past lives; a time-travelling dwarf; and an enigmatic photograph. All this excitement sits uneasily with the almost pedantic prose style. Gaarder's forte is to incorporate challenging themes into a flowing, imaginative narrative. The author's earlier novel, Sophie's World , has been a phenomenal success; the novel has sold over 16 million copies, been translated into 42 languages and is a whistle-stop tour of philosophy, from Socrates to Sartre. Unfortunately in the case of Maya , the story fails to grip the reader enough and lacks the fluidity of prose that made Sophie's World such a delight to read. -- Eithne Farry