Sophie's World

JOSTEIN GAARDER was born in Oslo in 1952.
SOPHIE'S WORLD, the first of his books to be published in English, has been translated into 60 languages and has sold over 40 million copies.
He is the author of many other bestselling, beloved novels and children's books.
He lives in Oslo with his family.

'A simply wonderful, irresistible book' DAILY TELEGRAPH

'A terrifically entertaining and imaginative story wrapped round its tough, thought-provoking philosophical heart' DAILY MAIL

'Remarkable ... an extraordinary achievement' SUNDAY TIMES

When 14-year-old Sophie encounters a mysterious mentor who introduces her to philosophy, mysteries deepen in her own life. Why does she keep getting postcards addressed to another girl? Who is the other girl? And who, for that matter, is Sophie herself? To solve the riddle, she uses her new knowledge of philosophy, but the truth is far stranger than she could have imagined.

A phenomenal worldwide bestseller, SOPHIE'S WORLD sets out to draw teenagers into the world of Socrates, Descartes, Spinoza, Hegel and all the great philosophers. A brilliantly original and fascinating story with many twists and turns, it raises profound questions about the meaning of life and the origin of the universe.

A rollercoaster ride through the history of philosophy - and a huge bestseller.A simply wonderful, irresistible bookA unique popular classicA marvellously rich book. Its success boils down to something quite simple - Gaarder's gift for communicating ideasRemarkable ... What Jostein Gaarder has managed to do is condense 3,000 years of thought into 400 pages; to simplify some extremely complicated arguments without trivialising them ... SOPHIE'S WORLD is an extraordinary achievementChallenging, informative and packed with easily grasped, and imitable, ways of thinking about difficult ideasA 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 ... which manages to deliver Western philosophy in accounts that are crystal clearA terrifically entertaining and imaginative story wrapped round its tough, thought-provoking philosophical heart