Product Description

'My father died eleven years ago. I was only four then. I never thought I'd hear from him again, but now we're writing a book together' To Georg Roed, his father is no more than a shadow, a distant memory. But then one day his grandmother discovers some pages stuffed into the lining of an old red pushchair. The pages are a letter to Georg, written just before his father died, and a story, 'The Orange Girl'. But 'The Orange Girl' is no ordinary story - it is a riddle from the past and centres around an incident in his father's youth. One day he boarded a tram and was captivated by a beautiful girl standing in the aisle, clutching a huge paper bag of luscious-looking oranges. Suddenly the tram gave a jolt and he stumbled forward, sending the oranges flying in all directions. The girl simply hopped off the tram leaving Georg's father with arms full of oranges. Now, from beyond the grave, he is asking his son to help him finally solve the puzzle of her identity.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32199 in Books
• Published on: 2005-07-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

VOGUE
'it should be read by all.'

Review
'it should be read by all.' (VOGUE )

'A modern fairytale.' (HEAT )

'A whimsical, thought-provoking story, with more than one surprise in store.' (THE GOOD BOOK GUIDE )

THE GOOD BOOK GUIDE
'A whimsical, thought-provoking story, with more than one surprise in store.'

Customer Reviews

Heartbreaking
An amazing love story told in a totally original style. Here a father writes a letter to his son because he knows he is soon going to die. His son receives and reads the letter when he is 15 and as he reads it, he adds his own tale.
This book really made me think about the beauty of true love, about life, death and the mysteries of the universe. Whether, if we had the choice, would we choose to be born at all, knowing that one day we would have to leave everyone and everything that we love. A terrific thought provoking book.

Beautiful tale
This is another of those books that i've read after buying it on a whim. I was drawn to it by the brightly coloured cover and intriguing title. Having since read it I have decided buying books on a whim is often a good idea. The story told by a fifteen year old boy, Georg, is also part told by his father. The strange and curious thing about this is his father died when he was four. Georg's father prior to his death wrote a letter for Georg to read when he was older. Now the letter has been discovered and Georg is reading it to us. The magic of this story is that it is the simplest of tales, indeed there are several stories and journeys within the tale itself and we are invited to listen in and learn alongside Georg as he grows to understand his father, and learn the puzzling identity of the Orange Girl.

This book is beautifully written, never failing to capture the imagination and easily pulling you into a story that warms the heart and provokes the mind.

A fairytale set against a normal life.
Having read all of Gaarder's novels, what struck me about his latest offering is how it has similarities to his debut novel, SOPHIE'S WORLD. As with SOPHIE'S WORLD, the story revolves around the written word - the protagonist of THE ORANGE GIRL, a fifteen year old called Georg - is handed a letter from his father who died while Georg was still only a young child. This letter - found behind the fabric of a buggy by Georg's grandmother - takes on the role of a letter "from beyond the grave", allowing Georg to come to know his father in a way he would otherwise never have been able to achieve. The purpose of his father's letter to tell the story of the Orange girl to Georg; a mysterious and beautiful young lady his father encountered while still a student. In time, Georg learns the identity of the Orange girl, and why his father may have believed the story to be so important.

While i did enjoy this novel, I am afraid to say it didn't quite live up to my huge expectations of it. Unlike SOPHIE'S WORLD, THE ORANGE GIRL does not manage to develop the philosophical aspect of the story as well as Gaarder is able to do. Although the story is enjoyable, there is an absence of a certain kind of magic that a lot of his other works possess. In a simplistic explanation, the story is not as mysterious as it promises to be.
Having said all of that, Gaarder remains one of my favourite authors (second behind Paulo Coelho), as he creates stories for escapism and stories which make you stop reading to think about the ideas behind the words.

Recommended.