Books

The Letter

Note from beyond the grave sheds light on lost love

By Nuttaporn Srisirirungsimakul

Did You Know : Orange is considered the most appetising colour, while blue and yellow are two of the least.

Title: The Orange Girl
Author: Jostein Gaarder
Translated by James Anderson
Price: 695 baht
Distributor: Asia Books
Fifteen-year-old Georg barely remembers his late father, who passed away some 11 years before. He only knows his dad from old photos. However, one day Georg comes upon a letter written to him by his dying father, intended to be read when he is old enough. Reading the letter, Georg finally gets to bond with his dad and learns more about himself as well.

In the letter, his father tells a story of the Orange Girl, a charismatic young lady, laden with bags of oranges, who he meets on a tram. Enchanted, he embarks on a search for this mysterious girl, but fails until one Christmas Eve, when he comes across the Orange Girl again. This time, Georg�s father confesses his love for the Orange Girl, but she demands that any romance should be put on hold for six months. If he can wait, she says, they can be together every day for the following six months. She then disappears, leaving Georg�s father yearning and leaving many unanswered questions for readers.

SIMPLE YET PROFOUND

The Orange Girl is quite short and simply constructed, yet Georg�s voice closely intertwines with his father�s, yielding a fascinating dialogue. Reading the book, readers will be enchanted by the love story the father wrote for Georg, his �best friend.� At the same time, readers, like Georg, are challenged to answer some profound questions about the meaning of life posed by the dying father.

A heart-warming and optimistic story, The Orange Girl shows that life can be a fairy tale. Magic is all around if only you know where to find it.

Grab the book to find out who the Orange Girl is. At the end of the story, I guarantee you�ll want to find out more about your parents� first love.

Vocabulary

come upon (phrasal v): to meet or to find something by chance
laden (adj): heavily loaded with something
embark on (phrasal v): to start to do something new or difficult
profound (adj): needing a lot of study or thought
intertwine (v): to be or become very closely connected with something or somebody else
dialogue (n): conversations in a book, play or movie

Idiom

to put something on hold: to delay or stop something for a period of time