Christmas & Other Mysteries

I am a fan of Jostein Garders work. He wrote Sophies World & The Solitaire Mystery & Hello is Anybody There? Bed time stories for grown ups with philosophy and magic. My favourite though is The Christmas Mystery which I somehow found on the 1st December 1998. Seeing that the story is based around the Advent Calendar I too started reading it with the intention of reading one chapter a day. But then something bizarre happened. Whilst following the story of Elisabet's journey to Bethelem I was shocked and stunned when I reached the part of the book where she makes her way through Germany. I was living in Hannover at the time and was feeling very homesick as it had been 1 year since I'd been home. It was freezing cold and very wintery and this book was taking a hold of me. Many descriptions of the weather and the feel of Germany in 1378 was so similiar to what was happening and how I was feeling in 1998. First Hamburg was mentioned, then Hameln, and the river Weser, then Hannover and then finally Paderborn. All of these places being very integral to my life in Germany was weird to then be reading in a book. Paderborn is a small town but is somehow extremely significant to the Catholic Church. Maybe that's why it gets a mention in the book. My favourite all time church is the Bartolomäuskirche in Paderborn which of course stars in the book. It's just a tiny cappelle really no more than 10 metres long, and has amazing acoustics.

Anyway why I'm telling you this is because I think it's a great kid's read - or even one to read to them at Christmas time. So as the title suggests, yes it's got the religious thing going on but it's really sweet and if you're non-Christian or atheist or whatever I don't think that should put you off.