The Orange Girl

ISBN-13: 9780753819920
Publisher: Phoenix
Published: 2005
151 pgs
Translator: James Anderson



Georg Reed does not really know his father, after all he died when little Georg was four. Now after eleven years, Georg discovers a letter addressing to him. Intrigued by the mystery and wanting to know more about his father, Georg began reading his letter, which comes in the form of a story.

The opening of the letter is intriguing enough, for Georg's father wrote the letter the way he knew he was going to die and would be read by Georg in the future. Georg is captivated by his father's story and about the Orange Girl, a girl whom his father met on a tram when he was just nineteen. He named her the Orange Girl because she was seen carrying a bag full of oranges, but he made a fool of himself of the girl while trying to save her bag of oranges when they threatened to fall off from the bag. Georg's father could not forget the Orange Girl from then onwards, and he tried to find her again by chance on several occasions. He succeeded, and their friendship began.

There is much intrigue and mystery surrounding the Orange Girl when I began to read about this story. It is a love story between the Orange Girl and Georg's father (the identity of the Orange Girl remains a mystery until it struck me who she is towards the middle of the story). Besides love, it is also a book about kinship, as Georg's father communicated his feelings and thoughts through a long letter after he had passed away. He told his story about how he had met the Orange Girl, and how his choice on their fairytale-like relationship had in turn started or changed everything. Besides telling Georg his story, he also had a question to Georg which I find is a thought-provoking one for all.

“Imagine that you were on the threshold of this fairytale, sometime billions of years ago when everything was created. And you were able to choose whether you wanted to be born to a life on this planet at some point. You wouldn't know when you were going to be born, nor how long you'd live for, but at any event it wouldn't be more than a few years. All you'd know was that, if you chose to come into the world at some point, you'd also have to leave it again one day and go away from everything. What would you have chosen if you'd had the chance? Would you have elected to live a short span on earth only to be wrenched away from it all, never ever to return? Or would you have said no, thank you?”

The story is written in two POVs - Georg being the narrator, and Georg's father through the letter. I really liked Jostein Gaarder's style of portraying this story in a magical way, starting from Georg's father's encounter with the Orange Girl till the end when he asked Georg the above question. I marvel at Jostein Gaarder's creativity of weaving this magical story from the ordinary, everyday's life issues without making it dull or depressing at all, no matter how close they are to reality that is. I would say it is a powerful book; one remarkable story that led me into thinking of the meaning of life and death, and how life could be appreciated even in small, simple ways. It is truly a wonderful story that will not only enthrall the younger readers but to the adults as well.