Jostein Gaarder is the author of SOPHIE'S WORLD, a huge bestseller in over 40 countries. He was born in Oslo in 1952 and lives there now with his wife and two sons.
12-year-old Hans Thomas's mother left him and his father eight years ago, and a recent sighting of her in a Cretan fashion magazine motivates them to drive from Norway to Greece to find her. Hans Thomas's father is a self-declared philosopher, the 'joker in the pack', so the young boy has learnt to think deeply already. But when a cold-handed dwarf hands him a small magnifying glass and directs them to Dorf, a mountain town in the wrong direction, things start to get a little strange. Here Hans Thomas is given 'the sticky bun book', a tiny volume containing the secrets of a magic island, and indeed, his own destiny. Packed full of philosophical musings, adventures and of course, mystery, Gaarder's new novel is a companion novel to the worldwide bestseller Sophie's World. (Kirkus UK)