- Paperback: 416 pages
- Publisher: Phoenix; New Tra edition (May 10 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0753811464
- ISBN-13: 978-0753811467
- Product Dimensions: 19.7 x 13.1 x 2.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 281 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #391,109 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
John Spoke, famous British author, has since the death of his wife, been left unable to write--that is until his chance meeting on a remote Fijian island with the characters who are to become the protagonists of his new novel. Jostein Gaarder takes his main characters: Ana and Jose, the enigmatic Spanish couple who speak mostly in aphorisms, Frank Anderson, an evolutionary biologist from Norway and Spoke, his author from Croydon, and has them meet in a place of extraordinary natural beauty--a garden of Eden untainted by the eco-pollution of the rest of the planet. In this location the characters are forced to contemplate Man's influence on the world, his place in evolutionary history and his responsibility for the future. Here they connect, exchange philosophies and become entwined in each others' stories.
From Fiji, the action moves to Spain, and the momentum builds. We discover that Ana is in fact a famous flamenco dancing gypsy, and that she bears a striking resemblance to the subject of a painting completed 200 years before her birth: Goya's Maja Nuda. It is also revealed that Ana's life--like that of her ancestors--is punctuated by the appearance of a time-travelling dwarf. These mysteries come as challenges and we are asked to make sense of them.
Maya is a novel with big themes: love, loss, ecology, evolution and consciousness. It is also ambitiously told with its multiple locations and its many narrative voices. But John Sessions handles this well with a pace and style that prevent the listener from losing the action. The novel closes with a puzzle, but also with the recognition that life, while baffling at times, is certainly rich and must be lived fully. --Judith Walters --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.
Book 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 so much in love they seem to have evolved a private language, fill the long Pacific nights by playing bridge, telling stories, and discussing ideas. This brief encounter is no mere interlude, but the start of an intertwined story, full of illusion and allusion, that 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—and to our own. Jostein Gaarder is the author of Sophie's World, a huge bestseller in over 40 countries.
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Customer Reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.1 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Make this Your second Gaarder book, Mar 14 2005
By KShaub - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Maya (Paperback)
This is what You get if You throw a mistery,a philosopy book,a natural sciences paper and the talking gecko of human condition in the same pot, and then cook it for a while.Excellent combination.However,I don't recommend it for a first timer Gaarder reader, the Joker idea first appears in"The Solitaire Mistery",which is an easier, more playful read,therefore You should start there,(and Sophie's world,if You want to know more about the history of western philosophy.)It's a non stop brain storming that'll require Your full attention and it is so worth it.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A depiction of life, Mar 20 2005
By Fateh A. Bazerbashi "Akujin" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Maya (Paperback)
Most of us - as a thinking kind - wonder about life , its origin , its purposes , its perpetual enigmatic journey that flourish among humans and other species ...we do have questions that tangle us , even haunts us when gazing through our timeline , here on earth ... is it all futile ? is it in vain ? or are we really part of a masterplan came out of a real twisted yet brilliant entity that gathered data and arranged it into our so-called common universe ..
Gaarder takes all of these puzzles - and i call them puzzles because i believe its something coherent this rise of thinking systems on our planet - and creates this drastic novel about life , destiny , deity , our great concerns ...
if you are not satisfied with the descartian definition of being , this book is for you ...
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Puzzled, but Thrilled, Mar 24 2006
By CDS "C" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Maya (Paperback)
There are few books that leave me puzzled but also thorouhgly satisfied, this is one of them. Gaarder is a masterful author, quickly becomign one of my favorites as I read more of his work. Like several of his other works, this story takes place on several levels and among the fiction he also weaves in a good layer of fact, throwing in some historical facts, but in this case focusing on some evolutionary theory. Like other Gaarder works as well, as soon as you feel that you've gotten the book figured out, it takes a sharp turn and goes down an entirely new path. It was so startling, that I had to flip back and skim through most of the book to make sure I hadn't missed anything that big. However, I hadn't. This is truly a satisfying read, and one that I'll definitely be going back to.
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