Through A Glass, Darkly - Jostein Gaarder

Conversations about life and death, between a girl and an angel. As Cecelia lies ill in bed, and her family valiantly make their Christmas preparations in the knowledge that she is not going to get better, an angel steps through her window. The death of a teenage girl from cancer is, in Gardner's hands, an occasion to reflect on the meaning of life and to celebrate it. It is the springboard for a spirited and thoroughly engaging series of conversations between Cecelia and her angel, who likes to sit around and chat. As Cecelia thinks about her own experiences and prepares herself for dying, we see subtle changes in her and her relationships with her family. No one could fail to be moved by the ending, when the angel takes her by the hand and they fly away together. Jostein Gaarder is a profoundly optimistic writer who approaches the subject of death and loss with wisdom, compassion and the open minded and enquiring spirit that characterises all his work. This is a book that will bring comfort to the bereaved: but more than that, it continues the wonderful exploration of universal ideas that made SOPHIE'S WORLD great.