The Bibliophile's Guide to the Hundred Year Old Man

Words
  • 523
Time to read
  • 5 mins
Published
  • 5 Oct, 2020

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

Meet Allan Karlsson, the centenarian hero of Jonas Jonasson's rib-tickling tale. He's lived quite the eclectic life hanging out with geniuses and Supreme Leaders, and after a daring escape from the Old Person's Home, is off on another escapade to commemorate his hundredth birthday.

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"You might think he could have made up his mind earlier, and been man enough to tell the others of his decision. But Allan Karlsson had never been given to pondering things too long. So the idea had barely taken hold in the old man's head before he opened the window of his room on the ground floor of the Old People's Home in the town of Malmkoping, and stepped out - into the flowerbed. This manoeuvre required a bit of effort, since Allan was one hundred years old. On this very day in fact. There was less than an hour to go before his birthday party would begin in the lounge of the Old People’s Home. The mayor would be there. And the local paper. And all the other old people. And the entire staff, led by the bad-tempered Director Alice. It was only the Birthday Boy himself who didn’t intend to show up..." . - Jonas Jonasson The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared (2009) (Translated from the Swedish by Roy Bradbury) Harper Collins . “Twentieth-century history retold through an ingenious plot in a comic caper that never ceases to surprise and delight. The funniest, most joyous book I have read in years.” . - Shashi Tharoor

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[ADD TO LIBRARY --> THE HUNDRED-YEAR-OLD MAN WHO CLIMBED OUT OF THE WINDOW AND DISAPPEARED - JONAS JONASSON]

"The funniest book I have read in a very long time that was not by Wodehouse" ~ Shashi Tharoor (Reader's Digest)

A Look At Shashi Tharoor's Bookshelf

The politician and former international civil servant shares his ten favourite books.

readersdigest.in
Trulli

+1, Dr Tharoor!!

Not only is the book in itself a delight, its origin story is heartwarming as well...

"I have always been a writer. Only, other things got in the way. Things I thought I had to take care of first.

As a result, years passed while the writer did not write a single book. I made my way through newspapers and television instead. As I woke up one day, I was no longer twenty-three but going on forty-eight.

The realisation of the years rushing by finally made me reinvent myself. Or climb out the window, if you like.

In 2007, I sold everything I owned, packed my bag and placed myself under a palm tree by Lake Lugano, laptop in lap.

Exactly twelve months later, I finished the manuscript. The one I had been carrying around in my mind for so long. Lovingly, it rips the twentieth century of all its glory and righteousness. And yet it embraces life. How could it not? How could we not? The alternative must be boring beyond everything!

Anyway, I sent the manuscript to six different publishing companies. Five of them turned it down, the sixths called me and said yes before they finished reading. Success was in the making, they said. They got bold and printed seven thousand copies in the first go.

"Seven thousand? Are you sure?"

"You can never be sure", they said.

It sold ten million... ~ Jonas Jonasson 

The books

jonasjonasson.com
Trulli

Check out his bibliography above - 5 books, 5 continents, 45 countries, 16 million copies and counting!!

Including the sequel...

[add to library --> The Accidental Further Adventures of the Hundred-Year-Old Man - Jonas Jonasson]
Not Streaming in India... yet :/

Watch instead...

The 101-Year-Old Man Who Skipped Out on the Bill and Disappeared | Netflix Official Site

In need of money, an eccentric ex-spy and his younger octogenarian partner embark on an international quest for a valuable Soviet soda formula.

netflix.com
Trulli

"The world is aching for common sense. The democracies of the world are threatened to the very core by the values they were once founded on. Under attack from the outside as well as the inside. But, surely, the world is not as bad as I make it sound in my books. Sometimes it is worse.

You wanted to cry, father. I prefer to laugh. The result is all the same. A laughter is a way to deal with it all. To make things even more bearable, my world of fiction always includes a happy ending.

 You know how I like to exaggerate." ~ Jonas Jonasson

Start

jonasjonasson.com
Trulli

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