I don't know how many times I've read this book, but it's a lot. I've just done so again, so thought it was time to log it here. I always got on better with this book than Sophie's World, because as clever as that is in talking about philosophy, I get more of that speculative staple, the sense of wonder, from Solitaire. And it's structured so carefully too, stories within stories wrapped up in a pack of cards, with images and relationships echoing each other across generations. Young Hans Thomas, off on a road trip with his dad to convince his mum to come home to them, is given a miniature book that's baked into a sticky bun by a baker who is far more than he seems. In that book is history and mirrors and magic, shipwrecks and goldfish and the most marvellous drink in the world... and a joker who, like the baker, knows more than he's letting on.

It's all deeply imaginative and utterly delightful.