Sophie’s World
Jostein Gaarder, 1991
Young adult Contemporary fictionLiterary fiction
A teenage girl starts receiving letters from a mysterious philosopher and finds her ordinary life opening onto 3,000 years of questions.
Feels like wonder, curiosity and melancholy. About identity, freedom and faith.
A page from the book
The whole span of a friendship, measured from hello to disappearance.
Life is both sad and solemn. We are led into a wonderful world, we meet one another here, greet each other - and wander together for a brief moment. Then we lose each other and disappear as suddenly and unreasonably as we arrived. Jostein Gaarder.Gaarder taught philosophy in Norwegian schools; Sophie’s World began as his attempt to make the history of philosophy readable for young people.
Books that feel like this
More by Jostein Gaarder
Ο κόσμος της Σοφίας
Jostein Gaarder, 1991
A story that turns everyday questions—who am I, where did the world begin—into an invitation to think for yourself.
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Questions readers ask
- What is Sophie’s World like?
- Feels like wonder, curiosity and melancholy. About identity, freedom and faith.
- What should I read after Sophie’s World?
- If you liked Sophie’s World, try The Amber Spyglass (Philip Pullman), The Silver Chair (C.S. Lewis) and Tress of the Emerald Sea (Brandon Sanderson).
A taste of the feed
What if oblivion were not an ending but a scattering into the world.
Even if it means oblivion, friends, I’ll welcome it, because it won’t be nothing. We’ll be alive again in a thousand blades of grass, and a million leaves; we’ll be falling in the raindrops and blowing in the fresh breeze; we’ll be glittering in the dew under the stars and the moon out there in the physical world, which is our true home and always was.
The Amber Spyglass · Philip Pullman
What if the only water is guarded by what frightens you?
I daren’t come and drink,“ said Jill. Then you will die of thirst,” said the Lion. Oh dear!“ said Jill, coming another step nearer.”I suppose I must go and look for another stream then.“ There is no other stream,” said the Lion.
The Silver Chair · C.S. Lewis
How much of your character is just a container you were poured into?
We want to imagine that people are consistent, steady, stable. We define who they are, create descriptions to lock them on a page, divide them up by their likes, talents, beliefs. Then we pretend some—perhaps most—are better than we are, because they stick to their definitions, while we never quite fit ours. Truth is, people are as fluid as time is. We adapt to our situation like water in a strangely shaped jug, though it might take us a little while to ooze into all the little nooks. Because we adapt, we sometimes don’t recognize how twisted, uncomfortable, or downright wrong the container is that we’ve been told to inhabit.
Tress of the Emerald Sea · Brandon Sanderson
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