The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden

The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson
Jonas Jonasson's second novel, The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden, is, like its forerunner, a vastly entertaining - and uniquely humourous - (miss)representation of the various adventures and mishaps that shape the face of history. Expertly intertwining main character Nombeko's modest South African roots with the lofty and politically charged goings on of kings, prime ministers, and presidents, Jonasson forms a tale both wildly unbelievable and perfectly natural.

There is something to Jonasson's humour that allows for catastrophe after catastrophe with ease and interest, rather than turning the tale into a frustrating sequence of implausibility. Hapless and exceptionally idiotic Holger One and Celestine form the perfect unintentional adversaries to thoroughly brilliant Nombeko and Holger Two. And with a political agenda passed from a mentally unstable father to unwitting sons, the novel has all the ingredients characteristic of Jonnason's winding tales. The narrative plays on a mixture of perfect accidents, terrible bad luck, and outstanding circumstances in order to tell - simultaneously - the personal stories of his unique characters, and the overarching national and worldwide politics. Of course there is also the matter of an atomic bomb.

Like his first novel, Jonasson's second maintains the stylings and humour indicative of his writing, and spins an uncanny trail of destruction into the perfect obscure tale of adventure, all the while providing characters you love, those you love to hate, and the Jonasson staple: the bumbling yet endearing fools.

The Hundred Year Old Man

My first, and only major qualm with The Hundred-Year-Old-Man was it's branding. On the back cover, (off my copy at least) is the tag line "it's never too late to start over". This implied a lovely story of a homely old man who suddenly decides though being aged beyond the average, he's ready for a bit of an adventure. mr Karlsson, however, is not an adventure-less homebody. A Swedish dynamite expert unwittingly tangled in politics, science and major events of history throughout the past 100 years, Karlsson's life was and and has been, remarkable. 

The novel writes with a wit and clarity that is both humorous and honest, immediately pulling in the reader as you learn about both Karlsson' current adventure - on the run from the senior's home whose window he's climbed out of - and his younger years, globe trotting and generally causing great pleasure and chaos all around him. 

A wonderful novel of character, friendship, and a great deal of history - albeit presented in an unusual (and dare I say far more interesting) manner, The Hundred-Year-Old-Man who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared is a great success of a novel, well suited to anyone looking for something a little off beat, quirky or down-right weird. Challenging both our ideas of age, and it's limitations, as well as the dichotomies of right and wrong, Jonasson blurs humour and tale with deep rooted realities and questions of humanity.