Stein and Solrunn haven’t seen each other since they lived together in the 1970s. But one day they meet again on the balcony of an old wooden hotel by a fjord in the western Norway. It’s remarkable that they meet there, because it was in that very same village that they more than 30 years earlier experiences something that shook them both, and that ultimately drove them away from each other.

What struck them that time? Their interpretations of what happened differ radically. Now a dialogue between two world views is reopened, and old love starts to burn again.

The Castle in the Pyrenees is a novel of love as well as of ideas. Are reason and science the only things that can shed light over human existence, or are there also hidden forces that can play tricks on us once in a while?

Praise for The Castle in the Pyrenees:

Brimming over with joyful writing, Jostein Gaarder’s new novel deals with the big questions […] Jostein Gaarder is an original and brave writer.”
(Dagsavisen)

“The author skilfully lays layer upon layer in a debate which is both too intimate for the individual and creates great divides in humanity itself […] [The book] is an easy enough read to be able to please young / inexperienced readers, but it will possibly hit closer to home for the middle aged audience who themselves are starting to reflect on the content of the lives they have lead and the ever more imposing proximity of death.”
(VG)

“Gaarder writes well and blends the love story with the supernatural and dry facts elegantly.”
(Bergensavisen)

”For this reviewer this novel works. Gaarder has succeeded in creating two living, three dimensional people, and in their discussion he has given us to equal partners, both of whom have good cards on their hands […] an engaging novel […] besides the novel has a very strong and captivating ending.”
(Aftenposten)