Jostein Gaarder is the author of Sophie s World, an international bestseller that has been translated into more than 50 languages. There are over 30 million copies in print. He was born in Oslo, Norway, in 1952. He taught high-school philosophy for several years before publishing a collection of short stories in 1986 and, shortly thereafter, his first two novels, The Solitaire Mystery and Sophie s World, and several others since then. He lives in Oslo with his family.