The Solitaire Mystery

by Jostein Gaarder (Author), Jessica Meserve (Designer), Hilda Kramer (Illustrator), Sarah Jane Hails (Translator)

• Used

  Paperback
  1999

  $3.75

  Twelve-year-old Hans and his father have left home to search for Hans's mother. She went to Greece to 'find herself' when he was four. Hans's father loves to philosophise on life (and to drink) and Hans is always happy to listen. But this turns out to be a strange journey. A dwarf in Switzerland gives Hans a magnifying glass. Next day a baker gives him a bun with a tiny book in it. As Hans begins to read the book, he discovers an incredible cast of characters, from a shipwrecked sailor to a Joker who looks too deeply and too much. The more he reads, the more Hans begins to think that the book is trying to tell him something about his own life. But will it help him to find his mother? An incredibly imaginative book, that lingers in the mind long after the last page has been read.

• Used

  Paperback
  1996

  $3.25

• Used

  Hardcover
  1996

  $11.82

  From the world wide bestselling author of SOPHIE'S WORLD a magical work which blends the threads of philosophy,fantasy and reality into a spellbinding adventure.

• New

  Paperback
  1997

  $11.48

  Twelve-year-old Hans Thomas lives alone with his father, a man who likes to give his son lessons about life and has a penchant for philosophy. Hans Thomas' mother left when he was four (to 'find' herself) and the story begins when father and son set off on a trip to Greece, where she now lives, to try to persuade her to come home. En route, in Switzerland, Hans Thomas is given a magnifying glass by a dwarf at a petrol station, and the next day he finds a tiny book in his bread roll which can only be read with a magnifying glass. How did the book come to be there? Why does the dwarf keep showing up? It is all very perplexing and Hans Thomas has enough to cope with, with the daunting prospect of seeing his mother. Now his journey has turned into an encounter with the unfathomable...or does it all have a logical explanation?