Review: De 100 jarige man die uit het raam klom en verdween, Jonas Jonasson

De 100 jarige man die uit het raam klom en verdween Jonas Jonasson cover
After a long and eventful life, Allan Karlsson ends up in a nursing home, believing it to be his last stop. The only problem is that he’s still in good health. A big celebration is in the works for his 100th birthday, but Allan really isn’t interested (and he’d like a bit more control over his alcohol consumption), so he decides to escape. He climbs out the window in his slippers and embarks on a hilarious and entirely unexpected journey. It would be the adventure of a lifetime for anyone else, but Allan has a larger-than-life backstory: he has not only witnessed some of the most important events of the 20th century, but actually played a key role in them.

After a long career as a journalist, media consultant and television producer, Jonas Jonasson decided to start a new life. He wrote a manuscript, he sold all his possessions in Sweden and moved to a small town by Lake Lugano in Switzerland, only a few meters from the Italian border.
The manuscript became a novel. The novel became a phenomenon in Sweden, and now it is about to reach the rest of the world.

I have seen this book at several occasions and heard about it a lot too. A fellow worker read the book earlier and convinced me I should read it. She even let me borrow her copy. So here I was sitting with a book I was having doubts on but with a promise I was going to read it and would say what I thought about it. Thankfully it was not bad.. not bad at all. But it was indeed a book I would not have picked up for myself in the end. The book starts with a mention that grandpa loves to tell stories. This makes you wonder what in the book is true and what not... but if you take all of it literal you can read in the details Allan's story is true. The whole story about Allan climbing out of his window on his slippers and accidentally getting into some very weird situations where people might or might not be killed by him is hilarious and does not make any sense. It is fun to read and a quick read too. I felt honestly sorry for the police officers who had to find out what really happened. Some of the quotes from the book I liked,

“Things are what they are, and whatever will be, will be.”

“Imagine that, death was just like being asleep. Would he have time to think before it was all over? And would he have time to think that he had thought it? But wait, how much do you have to think before you have finished thinking?” 

De 100 jarige man die uit het raam klom en verdween
Author: Jonas Jonasson
Publisher: Signatuur
ISBN-10:  905672374X
ISBN-13:  9789056723743
Pages: 358
Format: Hardcover
Original title: Hundraåringen som klev ut genom fönstret och fönstret och försvann
Signatuur: eBook | Hardcover

3 star review
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