Sophie’s World

Jostein Gaarder

An absorbing, original and fascinating book for everyone who wishes to know more about the history of our own culture, interwoven with the history of western philosophy and the imaginary story of Sophie and Hilde. In order to solve the mysteries that are a part of Sophie’s World, we need an understanding of European philosophy. Who is Hilde Møller Knag? Why does Sophie keep coming across Hilde’s things? Why does she receive Hilde’s mail? The story ends in Hilde’s garden in the small town of Lillesand on the south coast of Norway. Or does it? Perhaps this is where it begins? Through her perusal of letters from a mysterious philosopher, Alberto Knox, who initiates her into the ideas of Europe’s great thinkers, Sophie gradually acquires the knowledge she needs to solve the mysteries surrounding her.

Praise for Sophie’s World:

“A marvellously rich book. Its success boils down to something quite simple – Gaarder’s gift for communicating ideas”
(The Guardian) 

“Challenging, informative and packed with easily grasped, and imitable, ways of thinking about difficult ideas”
(Independent on Sunday)

“A terrifically entertaining and imaginative story wrapped around its tough, thought-provoking philosophical heart “
(Daily Mail)

“Seductive and original… Sophie’s World is, as it dares to congratulate itself, “a strange and wonderful book”
(Times Literary Supplement)

“An Alice in Wonderland for the 90s… philosophy’s answer to Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time…this is simply a wonderful, irresistible book”
(Daily Telegraph)

“Remarkable…what Jostein Gaarder has managed to do is condense 3000 years of thought into 400 pages; to simplify some extremely complicated arguments without trivialising them…an extraordinary achievement” 
(Sunday Times)

“A whimsical and ingenious mystery novel that also happens to be a history of philosophy… What is admirable in the novel is the utter unpretentiousness of the philosophical lessons”
(Washington Post)