Jostein Gaarder (Oslo, 1952) was professor of Philosophy and History of Ideas at a Bergen institute for ten years. In 1986 he began publishing books, and in 1990 he received the Norwegian Critics' Prize and Literary Prize from the Norwegian Ministry of Culture for his novel The Mystery of the Solitary (Siruela, 1995). But it was El mundo de Sofía (Siruela, 1994) the work that became a true world best-seller and that has been awarded in Spain with the Archbishop Juan de San Clemente and Conde de Barcelona prizes. Gaarder created the Sofía Foundation, whose annual award financially endowed the best innovative work in favor of the environment and development.