Reviews

By Francesa Hritcan | Edited by Indéa Windust

The Orange Girl, a philosophical novel by Jostein Gaarder, addresses important themes such as death, patience, destiny, and the meaning of life. 

Georg Rode, a fifteen-year-old boy, finds a letter from the past written by his late father and addressed to him. In this letter, the father writes about the meeting with the woman who changed his life. It all started on an Oslo tram—she was holding a bag of oranges in her arms, and thus, was named the orange girl. In the exciting and overwhelming text, the two lovers will try in every way to find themselves united by the thread of destiny, but the price to pay is waiting. This novel shows that some people wait a lifetime, while others only need a moment—one look to fall madly in love and decide to turn their world upside down for that person, before even knowing their name. At the end of the manuscript, George discovers the identity of the orange girl; an exciting conclusion of a novel that, between lightness and severe depth, will move the reader to tears.  

This book is a hymn to ‘carpe diem,’—to live every given moment without regrets. Those who do not know how to live in the present will never live; the true meaning of life is life itself, and the only way to defeat death is love. I recommend The Orange Girl to all those people who live on emotions and expectations, yet can still fall in love at first sight.