The solitaire mystery

by Jostein Gaarder

309 pages

English language

Published Jan. 5, 1996 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

ISBN:: 978-0-374-26651-6
OCLC Number:: 34285212

(10 reviews)

In The Solitaire Mystery, Hans Thomas and his father set out on a car trip through Europe, from Norway to Greece - the birthplace of philosophy - in search of Hans Thomas's mother, who left them many years earlier. On the way, Hans Thomas receives a mysterious miniature book - the fantastic memoir of a sailor shipwrecked in 1842 on a strange island where a deck of cards has come to life. But how do these stories fit together? Who is the little man who keeps cropping up on their trip?

And why must Hans Thomas learn about the distant past before he can understand his mother's more recent disappearance? Structured as a deck of cards - each chapter is one card in the deck - The Solitaire Mystery weaves together fantasy and reality, fairy tales and family history. Full of questions about the meaning of life, it will spur …

7 editions

Sharyl reviewed The solitaire mystery by Jostein Gaarder

Review of 'The solitaire mystery' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I may never look at a deck of cards the same way again. The Solitaire Mystery is another imaginative, clever, and thought-provoking philosophical tale by Jostein Gaarder. This time, the protagonist is a 12-year-old boy named Hans Thomas, a bright boy who is quickly exiting childhood and trying to make sense of the world around him.

This story does not have too much in common with Sophie's World--it's much more like a fairy tale. I did not expect this, and yet--I enjoyed it very much, and thought it worked very well, in its own way. Eventually, I'd like to read more of Gaarder's novels.

Excuse me, may I have your Joker?

Good read!