The Solitaire Mystery: A Novel About Family & Destiny

by Jostein Gaarder, Sarah Jane Hails (Translator)

Overview

The story of a boy and his father on a car trip through Europe, searching for the boy's mother, who left many years ago to find herself. Structured as a deck of cards -- each chapter is one card in the deck -- The Solitaire Mystery subtly weaves together fantasy and reality, fairy tales and family history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781466804555
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	11/01/2003
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	250
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Jostein Gaarder was born in Oslo, Norway, in 1952. He taught high-school philosophy for several years before publishing a collection of short stories in 1986 and, shortly thereafter, his first two novels, The Solitaire Mystery and Sophie's World, and several others since then. He lives in Oslo with his family.

Jostein Gaarder is the author of Sophie’s World, an international bestseller that has been translated into more than 50 languages. There are over 30 million copies in print. He was born in Oslo, Norway, in 1952. He taught high-school philosophy for several years before publishing a collection of short stories in 1986 and, shortly thereafter, his first two novels, The Solitaire Mystery and Sophie’s World, and several others since then. He lives in Oslo with his family.

Editorial Reviews

Gaarder, a former high-school philosophy teacher and author of the best-selling novel "Sophie's World" (1994), displays his effervescent knack for uncovering the meaning of life in this mercurial and enigmatic odyssey. Precocious 12-year-old Hans Thomas, eight years after his mother deserts the family in a quest to find herself, accompanies his lonely father on a mission to bring her home. In a mystical trek from Norway to Greece, Hans learns about his inescapable destiny through a miniscule book hidden in a sticky bun. He must use a magnifying glass, inexplicably gifted to him by a midget, to read about his heritage and future. This innovative work of fiction was originally published in Norway six years ago. It is creatively presented to the reader as a deck of cards; each chapter symbolizes one playing card and reveals one portion of the mystery, which is shrouded in a game of solitaire. Gaarder tells this intriguing and bewitching tale with fanciful elements that seek to awaken the dormant child within the reader.

Liz Rifken

A playful, ingenious, frequently moving but occasionally perplexing celebration of our persistent search for answers to the ultimate questions—Who are we? Where have we come from? Where are we going?—disguised as a fairy tale/adventure.

This Norwegian writer's first novel, Sophie's World (1994), used the guise of a novel-within-a-novel to present a droll history of philosophy, apparently intended for adolescents. It's unclear this time out who Gaarder imagines his audience to be. While the bare outlines of the story (a young boy and his despairing father go in search of the boy's mother, who has abandoned them; the boy is given a book, possibly magical, by a kindly old man; the book unlocks a series of remarkable revelations about the boy's life) might seem to be aimed at children or young adults, some of the imagery is dauntingly arcane. The book the boy is given is the history of two men, marooned 50 years apart on a magical island. The first man, his imaginative powers mysteriously enhanced, brings a deck of playing cards to life. The second man (the grandson of the first) sets in motion a series of events that lead to the island's destruction; he and the Joker escape. The Joker, who "sees too deeply and too much," is the only one of the cards to wonder about his origins and purpose in life. Hans Thomas, the little boy, turns out to be the descendant to these castaways. The Joker, ever-youthful, takes an interest in the boy, helping Hans and his father to reunite with Hans' mother. There are passages here (on the wonderful island, the lives of the figures who have emerged from the deck of cards, the debates on life's purpose) that are ingenious and startling, reminiscent of the philosophical fantasies of the Victorian writer George MacDonald. But too often Gaarder's musings seem repetitious, the imagery hazy, the conclusions unsurprising.

Fascinating and frustrating in equal measure.

Kirkus Reviews