A beautiful book. The imagery is lovely, and I got hooked when one of the characters actually wanders into the ice palace. The descriptions of the light, and the interplay of the changing colors and shapes of the ice were mesmerizing--I stayed up late and couldn't go to bed. And in the morning it seemed it should be all ice outside instead of the height of summer. Tremendously atmospheric, simply splendid. The first book in about six months to make it straight to my read-again shelf. And short--a quick read if you're busy.

One of the most beautiful books ever written. You are not literate before you have read this book.

From the first sentence Tarjei Vesaas draws the reader into a world of icy chill and unspoken foreboding ,drawn with language as spare, beautiful and relentless as the wintry nordic landscape. Two girls on the brink of puberty experience a moment of furtive sexual and spiritual awakening that neither is emotionally prepared for; when one of them subsequently vanishes from her home the other is lost in a welter of guilt and confusion. An unusual and evocative exploration of emotional isolation, both real and self imposed

This is actually the third volume of the Alberta trilogy. I think the review written by "a reader from London" refers to the first book, Alberta and Jacob. Alberta Alone is quite different. The novel borders on modernistic in its exploration of the process of becoming a writer. Alberta struggles with a failing relationship, motherhood, and questions of identity. The story, which takes place a few years after the First World War, is set in Bretagne, Paris, and Southern Norway. As usual, Sandel's writing is outstanding.

Alberta has finished school and lives at home in the north of Norway with her parents and younger brother. She's fond of her father, a magistrate who drinks too much, and mostly fears her mother who wants Alberta to be attractive and accomplished in domestic skills. Jacob is a failure at school and also causes their parents only anxiety over how he can maintain the family standing. The atmosphere at home is tense, stifling and depressed. Alberta is excruciatingly shy and doesn't know what to say to anyone. She spends most of her time reading and going for walks, taking routes that will avoid bumping in to other people. Only out in the countryside does Alberta become confident and alive. She yearns to get away, for her life to change, to meet different people. Throughout small dramas occur in the Selmer family and the town, usually about money, marriage or sex including one where Alberta becomes aware of her own sexual feelings.

Although she always feels inadequate, Alberta never compromises, refusing to marry to please her parents and keeping her inner life intact. The book's strength is its portrayal of Alberta, an unusual character in literature. The book has had many fine reviews.

This, the second book in the Alberta trilogy, breaks with the past in more ways than one. While the first book concerned itself with the struggles of an adolescent girl growing up in a cold and alienating small town in Northern Norway, the first book examines Alberta's life seven years later. She is now a woman living on the fringe of the expatriate artist community in Paris, and she struggles to maintain her autonomy, develop her voice as a writer, and stave off crushing loneliness and poverty. Sandel is a master of Norwegian prose fiction, and although Alberta's situation is often desperate, the writing is always exquisite.

Jostein Gaarder ranks right up there on my list of favorite authors, but I did not feel that this was his best effort. It is very much in the same vein of "The Solitaire Mystery" (my all-time favorite book) and "Sophie's World" (the book that inspired me to get a philosophy minor in college), but covers the same principles talked about in "Solitaire Mystery". Read that one to get your socks blown off, read "The Christmas Mystery" around December to get in the spirit of the holidays!

I bought a copy of this book several years ago for my son. We read it aloud each evening leading up to Christmas. Since then, it has become a tradtion in our family to read a chapter a night every evening, usually starting after Thanksgiving. This will be our 4th reading, and already the children are asking if it's time for our "advent book" reading to begin. Each year we enjoy it more, as it reminds us of the deeper meaning of the holiday we celebrate.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone, and am ordering copies for my sister's family this year.

Every year, the 1st of December we find The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaarder in our box of Christmas books, and start to read the first chapter. The book has 24 chapters, so we keep on reading, one chapter every day, untill Christmas Eve. And when we read we follow the little girl Elisabet from Norway around 1940, down through Europe and down through history, untill she, in the last chapter meets Joseph, Maria and the little newborn king. At the same time we meet the boy Joakim who finds a very special advent calendar in an old bookshop, the advent calendar has doors to open, and inside the doors Joakim finds small sheets of paper telling the fantastic story about Elisabet and her travel.
Is the story just a fantasy story, or is Elisabet a real girl, doing a real travel?

The Christmas Story tells us about all this, and alot more. For our family it is a must every Christmas. Not all kids want to listen to it every year, but mother will keep on reading it as long as her eyes allows her :-)

Britt Arnhild Lindland