Product Description
Hay vida en otros planetas? De donde surgio el mundo? Que dirias si de repente cayera a un manzano de tu jardin un extrano ser de otro planeta? Jostein gaarder, en este libro, nos acerca a las grandes preguntas sobre la existencia, esta vez con un ameno dialogo platonico entre Milka, un pequeno ser extraterrestre, y Joakim, un nino de 8 anos que aguarda la llegada de un hermanito esa misma noche. ... Read more

Product Description
Thrown together for three days on the paradise island of Taveuni, a lonely Norwegian biologist, a bereaved English novelist, and a strange and beautiful Spanish couple, fill the long nights by playing bridge, telling stories, and discussing ideas. This brief encounter is the start of an intertwined story, full of illusion and allusion, which will unfold many months later. Part tragedy, part mystery, and, above all, a love story, Maya debates and unravels the questions that give meaning to the lives of its characters.Description in Spanish:Jostein Gaarder seduce con una novela de suspense donde mezcla ciencia, filosofia, historia y amor. Desde distintos escenarios, como el ultimo reducto ecologico de las islas Fidji o una España de arte y flamenco, los personajes disertan sobre la teoria de la evolucion del hombre a partir del Big Bang, se sumergen en hipotesis sobre la relatividad de Tiempo y la finalidad del Universo y nos descubren el concepto hindu de Maya para explicar la vision que tiene el hombre de la realidad. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

A very disappointing read
(This review is based on the English translation).
This novel is what you get if a fairly accomplished philosopher who is a reasonably good writer and whose first book (Sophie's choice) found a very original and charming way to combine philosophy with fiction and thereby scored a huge hit, and then wrote some more ok books, gets it into his head that he must write yet another book, but now he really does not have a single original idea left. And so this is 300 pages of an enormously drawn-out, unfocussed plot that fails to engage, combined with endless philosophical monologues by the main protagonist (talking to, of all things, a gecko), which at its best makes an interesting point here or there but mostly crawls along at the level of "philosophizing" that late on a Saturday night in an inebriated state may seem meaningful but doesn't quite cut it on Sunday morning (does life have meaning? I sometimes think so. It just, you know, has to. Or otherwise it just, kind of, wouldn't make sense. And so on and so on)
Anyway, I am actually not so surprised that a person whose previous work was good would later write something so awful, but I do think it is strange that many reviewers wrote rather positive reviews of this book. Wonder what drugs THEY were on?
So first, I thought this was a one-star kind of a book. Nevertheless, after reading those glowing reviews and thinking it over, I decided that if some people found this book so good, I was willing to give it 2 stars rather than one. Call me a coward.

Wonderful
As are all of Jostein Gaarder's works, Maya was splendid! It was a great mix of sociology, philosophy, and biology sugar-coated with fiction. I would cancel everything scheduled in my day so that I could read this book.

A real masterpiece!
This book is a real masterpiece! It's the book you will read more than one time. Each time you read it, you will discover new aspects of the story and you will feel the excitment of the first reading all over again... "Maya" causes some deep thinking on matters like the creation of the universe. The writer's thoughts about whether there is always a final cause touched me and made me a little bit of a philosopher! Was the creation of human beings the final cause of the evolution of the species throughout the years, or do we exist thanks to some random cellular divisions? The question remains ananswered so each reader can form his own opinion. Reading this book will make you realise that our existance and the world we live in is a miracle!

Pretty Good
I bought the book in Grahamstown, SA, so what a coincidence that another reviewer is from there! Anyway, I think Maya was pretty good. Like other Gaardner books it is a bit bizarre, but this one comes together in the end. It asks some pretty profound questions - like is there a purpose to evolution - but I'm not sure that it provides much in the way of answers. It is a good, quick read, though.

Not disappointing
I've just finished reading maya and as usual Gaarder goes back and ahead in time to find out a little more about life, definetly worth reading, a little tresure book! ... Read more

Product Description
En este libro maravilloso, del mismo autor que El mundo de Sofia, se produce un singular encuentro en plenas fiestas navidenas entre Cecilia (una joven aburrida de estar en cama a causa de su enfermedad) y el pequeno Ariel (un enigmatico y curioso angel que desea conocer todo lo que nos sucede a las personas) que servira para que Cecilia, en un continuo intercambio de preguntas y respuestas con Ariel, acabe descubriendo, desde su habitacion, como es la vida fuera de la Tierra, que son los suenos, la imaginacion y hasta como es posible llegar a volar... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

joker gagnant
Un roman-puzzle totalement hors du commun, qui fait du bien aux neurones. Road-movie, fantastique, policier, conte philosophique, tous les genres se mêlent pour le plus grand plaisir du lecteur. Basé sur un jeu de 52 cartes (plus le joker, personnage principal), ce roman à clé nous vient du froid. Il entremêle l'histoire de Hans-Thomas, un adolescent norvégien en voyage avec son père à la recherche d'une mère descendue vers le soleil, et celle d'une histoire incroyable de nains perdus au milieu d'une île déserte. La frontière entre réel et imaginaire disparait, au profit d'un message philosophique résumé en une phrase "celui qui dévoilera le destin devra y survivre". Comprenne qui pourra, mais on se laisse facilement bercer par ce double récit agrémenté des délicieuses gravures sur bois de Sophie Dutertre. De la belle oeuvre, inclassable mais de la lecture de laquelle on sort avec un regard neuf sur le monde qui nous entoure. Une réussite... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

I et speil, i en gåte
I will write this in norwegian since the book is printed in it.

Boka handler om kreft syke Cecilie som er senge liggende ved jule tider. Hun møter en engel ved navn Ariel som tar henne med på turer ut av rommet hennes. Hun orker nesten ingenting mens sammen med ariel har hun all verdens krefter.
Av en lege på sykehuset fikk hun en notatbok med kinesisk trekk på. I denne skriver hun om det hun og Ariel snakker om.

Dette er en bok som tar deg med i en spennende reise mellom liv og død.
Selv om boka ikke er så lang ga den meg en god del "aha" opplevelser.

Jostein Gaarder skriver veldig bra og har mange teorier som henger på grep.

Det er en del kristendom i førsten av boka, noe som gjør at jeg (som er human-etiker) synes er litt i overkant. Det gjorde at jeg egentlig ikke hadde lyst til å lese ut boka, men jeg gjorde det og det er veldig glad for.

Boka er virkelig en "must reed".

Dette er den første boka jeg har lest av Jostein Gaarder, men det er ikke den siste!
... Read more