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Hans Thomas, un muchacho noruego de 12 anos, y su padre emprenden un viaje hacia Atenas en busca de la madre, que ocho anos atras los abandono para encontrarse a si misma. El azar hace que se detengan en Dorf, un pequeno pueblo donde un viejo panadero regala al joven un panecillo que oculta un diminuto libro, que Hans Thomas comenzara a leer con la ayuda de una lupa que un misterioso enano le regala. A partir de ese momento, el muchacho inicia otro emocionante viaje paralelo: el de la imaginacion. Sabra de Frode, un marinero que naufrago y sobrevivio en una isla desierta, de su baraja de naipes y de como combatio su soledad haciendo que cada una de las 53 cartas tuviera vida propia (52 de ellas bastante inconscientes; una sola, Comodin, entiende verdaderamente las reglas del solitario que hace el anciano). Pensando en todo ello, a Hans Thomas le surgira una pregunta: Hasta que punto podemos nosotros, a diferencia de los naipes, determinar nuestro destino? ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Un libro para despertar del sueño donde nos hayamos
El misterio del solitario es sin lugar a duda el mejor libro de Jostein Gaarder, tal y como para mi sorpresa reconoció él, el día que tuve la oportunidad de conocerle en persona, durante una mesa redonda en el Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid.
Un libro que siempre te hace abrir más los ojos a este mundo tan increible y misterioso en el que vivimos y del que formamos parte por pequeñas probabilidades, ya que como Jostein Gaarder dijo, "el mundo es una lotería donde sólo son visibles los boletos ganadores". En definitiva, un libro para auténticos comodines de baraja. ... Read more

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'Years have passed and much has changed since we two had our arms around each other. Thus what I write will perhaps be equally a letter to the whole Christian church, for today you are a man of great influence.'

In a second-hand bookshop in Buenos Aires, Jostein Gaarder makes an exciting find: a transcript of a letter to St Augustine, author of the famous Confessions, from Floria Aemilia, the woman he renounced for chastity.

Vita Brevis is both a classic love story, beautifully told, and a fascinating insight into St Augustine's life and that of his discarded concubine. It is up to the reader to determine its authenticity... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

A good philosophy book...
First of all, as another user has said, this book was written by Gaarder, not by Floria. At the beginning, Gaarder says that he found an old document from the XVI century in a bookstore in Argentina. He bought the document because he thought it was a letter written by Floria, a woman who was St. Augustine's lover when they were both young. Just ignore what Gaarder says about how he found the document, because that's something he made up from his mind.

Now onto the book. Gaarder uses Floria to refute a lot of Augustine's ideas about virtue, sins, chastity, celibate and the relationship between God and men. Gaarder's philosophy is the opposite of Augustine's: Whenever Augustine says to ignore the beauty of the world because it may lead you to sin, Gaarder will tell you to enjoy it because it's God's creation.

The purpose of Gaarder is to show us the true nature of Augustine's ideas, more close to those of the asceticism than to Christianity (he is even ashamed for enjoying food, for Christ sake!). To deny the human nature is to deny the works of God, it was never His purpose to build a beautiful world just to demand us to ignore it.

You may be in disagreement with Gaarder's ideas, but at the end this is a great book and the best of it is that you will be anxious to know more about St. Augustine's life and works. I recommend you to look forward for The Confessions of St. Augustine, so you can have the whole picture and learn about a man that shaped modern morality like few people have been able to do. You won't regret it.

Misleading
This book wants to be an answer to Augustin's famous "Confession". This book is fiction and it is strange that some reviewers think the letters to be real.

Gaarder lets the woman, with whom Augustin lived together for a long time, speak in letters answering to the Confessions of Augustin. The problem is that Gaarder's view of this woman is a woman of the 20th century, a woman who has no understanding for Augustin's religious belief or sexual morals. It seems Gaarder read this book, quickly judged it after the standards of our time and left it with that. Would he for a moment consider if there may be some true meaning in such a classic as the confessions of Augustin, a book, which has been a classic for more than 1500 years?

He even misrepresents cleary what Augustin said. Augustin syas how even in children you can observe envy. That you can see a baby who screams angrily at another baby, just because that other baby gets fed. Even though there clearly is enough for both. That's what Augustin wrote. Gaarder accuses him of saying that a baby is sinful just because it wants to be fed in the first place, and that is clearly not what Augustin said, as anyone can read in Augustin's confessions.

Buy it!
Unlike some of the other reviewers, it seemed clear to me that the "introduction," "postscript" and footnotes that others assumed where "true" are part of the text and are also fiction.Gaarder did not find these letters; his story of finding them is part of the story (here he is honoring Jorge Luis Borges).It is a short, but deeply intriguing story.The book does raise serious concerns about elements of Augustine's theology (especially the doctrine of creation; is creation good?).At the same time, it tells a painfully truthful story of lost love.

Another side of Augustine ...
This is a compilation of letters from Floria Aemilia to Augustine, and it reveals quite another side of him. Anyone who has read his Confessiones cannot help but think what a boring life he lead .. however, after having read these letters, you realize that that was just one side of his life. These letters are moving and very interesting. True love letters from another time - yet they feel timeless. Surely such a love story could have taken place today, although the obstacles would have been different.

The foreward about how these letters came into Jostein Gaarder's possession is also very interesting - a dream for booklovers coming true!

Moving, unexpected book
I devoured this strangely moving book in about two hours, stranded inside a car during one of my former boyfriend's windsurfing forays - and closed it with a curious mixture of lingering anguish and that joy that sometimes comes with absolute recognition. The love story depicted here is very touching and anything but predictable. Some deep truths concerning love, endurance and the making of choices, are conveyed here through Floria's long-vanished voice. ... Read more

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1994 FIRST EDITION HARDCOVER ... Read more

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text in Norwegian508 numbered pages ... Read more

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WRITTEN IN PORTUGUESE, 555 PAGE TRADE SOFTCOVER, PUBLISHED IN SAO PAULO BRAZIL ... Read more

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Word count: 1035. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Epoca, published by Difusora de Informacion Periodica, S.A. (DINPESA) on December 6, 2002. The length of the article is 523 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Jostein Gaarder: "La fantasia es un musculo, y debemos ejercitarlo": En El vendedor de cuentos (Siruela) Jostein Gaarder, autor de El mundo de Sofia, reflexiona sobre la fama y la vanidad de los escritores.(Entrevista)
Author: Fatima Uribarri
Publication: Epoca (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 6, 2002
Publisher: Difusora de Informacion Periodica, S.A. (DINPESA)
Page: 62(1)

Article Type: Entrevista

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Chapters: Bahá'í Faith in Norway, Jostein Gaarder Controversy, Christianity in Norway, Orthodoxy in Norway, Theosophy in Scandinavia, Neopaganism in Scandinavia, Norwegian Heathen Society, Hamar Cathedral, Pentecostalism in Norway, Hinduism in Norway, Buddhist Federation of Norway, Religion in Western Norway, Baptism in Norway, Buddhism in Norway, Levende Ord Bibelsenter, Jehovah's Witnesses in Norway, Adventism in Norway, Kvitsund Gymnas, Oslo Buddhist Center. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 111. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt:The Bahá'í Faith in Norway began with contact between traveling Scandinavians with early Persian believers of the Bahá'í Faith in the mid-to-late 1800s. Bahá'ís first visited Scandinavia in the 1920s following `Abdu'l-Bahá's, then head of the religion, request outlining Norway among the countries Bahá'ís should pioneer to and the first Bahá'í to settle in Norway was Johanna Schubartt. Following a period of more Bahá'í pioneers coming to the country, Bahá'í Local Spiritual Assemblies spread across Norway while the national community eventually formed a Bahá'í National Spiritual Assembly in 1962. There are currently around 1000 Bahá'ís in the country. The first mentions of the religion happened in the era when Norway was politically united with Sweden; the first mention of the Báb, who Bahá'ís view as the herald to the founder of the religion, Bahá'u'lláh, was published in accounts of Persian travels in 1869, and the first mentions of Bahá'u'lláh were made in 1896. Swedish Sufi Ivan Aguéli was able to meet `Abdu'l-Bahá, the son of the founder of the religion, in 1912 in Egypt. The next steps in the history of the Bahá'í Faith in Norway start after the political independence of Norway from Sweden in 1905. `Abdu'l-Bahá, the son of the founder of the religi...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=17260410 ... Read more

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Chapters: Ebba Haslund, Jostein Gaarder, Alexander Kielland, Ari Behn, Hans Herbjørnsrud, Jan Jakob Tønseth, Einar Gauslaa, Kristian Kristiansen, Kjell Askildsen, Laila Stien, Merethe Lindstrøm, Dagfinn Grønoset, Levi Henriksen, Rønnaug Kleiva, Åsmund Forfang. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 47. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Ebba Margareta Haslund Halvorsen (12 August 1917 10 July 2009) was a Norwegian novelist, writer of short stories, playwright, essayist, children's writer, literary critic, radio speaker and politician. Haslund was born in Seattle, Washington as the daughter of Frantz Philip Haslund (18831974) and Ebba Margareta Gillblad (18901957). Haslund has described her father as an "adventurer", and they travelled regularly during her early life. She became a student in 1935, and studied languages in both England, Germany and France before World War II. She graduated from the University of Oslo in 1941 with the cand.philol. degree. In 1940 she married businessman Sverre Fjeld Halvorsen (1910-2005). Her husband was imprisoned at Grini and in Poland during World War II, but they remained married until his death. Haslund lived at Blommenholm; she died aged 91 in Oslo. Haslund made her literary debut in 1945 with the short story collection Også vi . Next year came her first novel, Siste halvår, about the adolescence of young girls. The independent continuation Det hendte ingenting (1948) was virtually ignored by the press at the time, but has later been regarded as one of her most important books. The novel depicts a possible lesbian dream. It was translated into English in 1987, with the title Nothing Happened. Hafslund's literary breakthrough was proclaimed with the emerging of Middag hos Molla (1951), and again with her next novel, Krise i august (1954). Haslund has w...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=22097654 ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Proceso, published by Thomson Gale on October 24, 2004. The length of the article is 3449 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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Title: Gaarder, en el Zócalo, explica "El mundo de Sofía".(Jostein Gaarder, autor)(Entrevista)
Author: Roberto Ponce
Publication: Proceso (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 24, 2004
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Issue: 1460Page: 72(4)

Article Type: Entrevista

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This is nonfiction commentary.Chapters: The Solitaire Mystery, Sophie's World, the Ringmaster's Daughter, Vita Brevis, the Christmas Mystery. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 24. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The Solitaire Mystery was published in 1990 and written by Jostein Gaarder, Norwegian author of the best-selling Sophie's World. Its main target audience is young adults, but the themes of the book transcend any age group. Like Sophie's World, The Solitaire Mystery has a philosophical content, but unlike Sophie's World, it does not explicitly mention philosophers and theories, thus, the reader of the book may be unaware that he or she is actually engaging in philosophy. The book follows two seemingly separate stories: A twelve year old boy, Hans Thomas, and his father are driving through Europe on a journey to locate and bring home the boy's estranged mother. Whilst on their journey, a strange little bearded man gives Hans Thomas a magnifying glass, saying mystically: "You'll need it!" Not long afterwards, Hans Thomas and his father stop in a roadside cafe where Hans Thomas gets a giant sticky bun from a kind baker to eat on his journey. To Hans Thomas's great surprise, hidden inside the sticky bun is a tiny book, with writing so small it cannot be read with the naked eye. Hans Thomas begins to read the tiny book using his new magnifying glass, and the story then alternates between Hans Thomas's journey, and the story in the sticky bun book. The sticky bun book tells the story of an old baker whose grandfather gave him a drink of a wonderful liquid he called Rainbow Fizz (Rainbow Soda in the American edition). It came from an island which the grandfather had been shipwrecked on as a young man. On the island lived an old sailor called Frode, and fifty-three other people; the fif...http://booksllc.net/?id=4097001 ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Epoca, published by Difusora de Informacion Periodica, S.A. (DINPESA) on June 11, 2000. The length of the article is 731 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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Title: Maya, el último éxito de Jostein Gaarder: "El universo tiene una finalidad".(TT: Maya, the last success of Jostein Gaarder: "the universe has a purpose".)(Reseña)
Publication: Epoca (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 11, 2000
Publisher: Difusora de Informacion Periodica, S.A. (DINPESA)
Page: 72

Article Type: Reseña

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Les achats comprennent une adhésion à l'essai gratuite au club de livres de l'éditeur, dans lequel vous pouvez choisir parmi plus d'un million d'ouvrages, sans frais. Le livre consiste d'articles Wikipedia sur : Jostein Gaarder, Sigrid Undset, Hans Kinck, Henrik Wergeland, Henrik Ibsen, Johan Sebastian Welhaven, Hans Jæger, Johan Falkberget, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Knut Hamsun, Camilla Collett, Arne Garborg, Dag Solstad, Tarjei Vesaas, Ronald Fangen, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, Gunnar Heiberg, Aasmund Olavsson Vinje, Arthur Omre, Alexander Kielland, Erlend Loe, Jørgen Moe, Torborg Nedreaas, Jonas Lie, Cora Sandel, Olav H. Hauge, Sigurd Hoel, Ketil Bjørnstad, Per Petterson, Gunnar Staalesen, Jo Nesbø, Åsne Seierstad, Herbjørg Wassmo, Lars Saabye Christensen, Tron Øgrim, Anne B. Ragde, Marie Takvam, Anne Holt, Eystein Eggen, Hulda Garborg, Karin Fossum, Niels Fredrik Dahl, Knut Ødegård, Titt Fasmer Dahl, Anne Karin Elstad, Jens Bjørneboe, Margit Sandemo, Hans Aanrud, Magdalene Thoresen, Ailo Gaup, Olav Duun, Grete Kleppen, Nikolaj Frobenius. Non illustré. Mises à jour gratuites en ligne. Extrait : Sigrid Undset est une femme de lettre et romancière norvégienne mondialement connue, née le 20 mai 1882 à Kalundborg au Danemark et morte le 10 juin 1949 à Lillehammer. Sa trilogie Kristin Lavrandsdatter l'a conduite, mue par l'intense participation émotionnelle à la redécouverte de l'époque médiévale chère à son père, au cours de son travail d'écriture vers une conversion au catholicisme en 1924. Polémiste experte du champ littéraire singulier de son pays et devenue une fervente croyante catholique en pays de religion d'État protestante, l'écrivain quadragénaire a obtenu le Prix Nobel de littérature en 1928 après la parution du roman Olav Audunssøn. Prenant une place inégalable dans la littérature norvégienne de l'entre-deux-guerre, elle est l'auteur de trente-six titres romanesques, de dizaines d'essais et de centaines d'articles. Sigr...http://booksllc.net/?l=fr ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Epoca, published by Thomson Gale on December 10, 2004. The length of the article is 505 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Jostein Gaarder: la filosofía con fantasía entra.(filósofo)
Author: Fátima Uríbarri
Publication: Epoca (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 10, 2004
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Issue: 1030Page: 86(1)

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