“Hundraåringen som klev ut genom fönstret och försvann”
A birthday party is planned at the retirement home where Allan Karlsson has just turned 100. The grand event is also graced by the presence of the Mayor and the press.
In no more than his brown jacket, brown trousers and pee slippers, this is the moment that the centenarian decides to escape. You think that’s odd?
At the bus station Allan, entrusted with a suitcase while its owner takes a bathroom break, takes off with the suitcase upon the arrival of the next bus. You think that’s weird?
You have no idea what’s to come! Jonas Jonasson tells us the ludicrous, yet fascinating story of a man who has been present at the most key moments in the last 100 years of human history. Actually, most of these key moments occurred precisely because he was there. As Allan hobnobs with all the world leaders from the President of the United States to the Shah of Iran, from Stalin to General Franco, from Mao Tse Tung to Kim II Sung, an extraordinary series of world events unfolds as he fuels diplomatic alliances and world wars with equal disregard.
Explosives expert. Eternal optimist. Swears by vodka. And could not care about religion or politics. This is the man who, on his 100th birthday, takes off with a stolen suitcase. To meet petty thief Julius Jonsson, eternal student Benny Ljungberg, Gunilla The Beauty Bjorklund, elephant Sonya, dog Buster, Bosse, Chief Inspector Aronsson, gangster Per-Gunner Gerdin … And with each larger than life character, the story gets just a little more interesting.
There is violence; not just in Gustavsson’s being blown up by dynamite or in Bolt being crushed to death by an elephant, but mainly - as Allan puts it - in his teaching the West how to make a bomb, and then giving the same information to the East. But the sheer over-the-top quirkiness makes this story a brilliant satire of all the crime and corruption in the world. “My name is Dollars. One Hundred Thousand Dollars.”
I also really liked the narrative style: on one hand we follow the 100-year-old Allan’s adventures starting from 2005 Malmkoping; on the other - through flashbacks - we catch up with the story of his unbelievable life starting from the 1920s, till the two timelines meet up on the day the 100-year-old man climbed out the window.
A ludicrous story (the title should have been a hint of things to come) filled with a lot of fun, a lot of laughter, and an ending that was such a ‘feel good’ moment. Like it said in the misprinted Bible, “They all lived happily ever after”.
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