The Hundred Year Old Man who Climbed out of the Window and Disappeared

Author : Jonas Jonasson  (Translated from the Swedish by Rod Bradbury)

Publisher : Abacus, Year 2012, Pages 394

Excerpts :

(1) Allan came to what must be Byringe Station – a closed-down building next to a most definitely and absolutely former railway line. He sat down on the stolen suitcase to gather his thoughts and strength. The man with the cap stretched out his hand, introduced himself as Julius Jonsson, and pulled the old man to his feet. He then announced that he would personally carry Allan’s suitcase, and that roast elk was on the bill if that suited, and that there would absolutely be a nip of the hard stuff to go with it, or rather enough to take care of the knees and the rest of him too.

(2) Allan sought out Esteban’s company commander of the Spanish Revolution forces, introduced himself as Europe’s leading pyrotechnical expert, and said that he would be prepared to blow up bridges and other infrastructural constructions for the company commander, in exchange for three square meals a day and enough wine to get drunk on when circumstances allowed…..  When the two now firm friends woke up again, the war was over. General Franco took charge of the government of the new Spain and offered Allan the position as head of his internal bodyguard. Allan thanked him, but wanted to head home, so Francisco gave a letter giving the generalissimo’s unconditional protection all the way to Lisbon.

(3 Sometime later in the winter of 1943Allan was taken to the US National Laboratory in Los Alamos…. Vice President Truman asked for a status report from Oppenheimer, who quickly stood up again. Somewhat flustered, the only thing he could think to say was that Mr Allan over there in the corner had just solved the remaining problem of how the detonation could be controlled. Three hours later the two men were calling each other Harry and Allan, which goes to show what a couple of  bottles of tequila can do for international relations.

(4) Bucket was driving too fast, and before he realized it the track had come to an end and was replaced by a little yard. And if he had been driving just a little faster, he wouldn’t even have had time to stop but would have driven straight into the old man who was standing there feeding an … an … elephant ?

(5) It turned out that the President was having some trouble with a woman whom he – for political reasons – couldn’t ignore. Her name was Soong May-ling, wife of Koumintang leader Chiang Kai-shek in China. “What do you want me to do?” asked Allan. “I want you to go to China and blow up bridges.”

(6) Then Julius got behind the wheel of the thug’s car and drove off, with Benny right behind him in The Beauty’s Passat. The idea was to seek out a deserted place a safe distance from Lake Farm and then pour petrol over the thug’s car and set fire to it, just as real gangsters would have done.

(7) The Boss put the BMW in a controlled skid and stopped, so his car now blocked the road. Then he pulled out his revolver and prepared to meet the vehicle he had just overtaken. Benny really did do his very best to avoid a collision, but his speed was still almost 50 kph when the fifteen-ton bus, elephabt and all, torpedoed the car in its path, upon which the car was thrown up into the air and flung twenty metres, landing hard against an eighty-year-old fir tree. “That was probably number three,” Julius guessed.

(8) Allan phoned the White House in Washington, and was put through to the president’s senior secretary. She remembered Mr Karlson very well and she had also heard so many good things about him from the president and if Mr Karlson really considered it important then she would see if they could wake President Truman, as it was only eight in the morning in Washington. A short while later, the newly awoken President and Allan had a hearty chat for several minutes, when Allan finally mentioned his errand. Could Harry phone the new Swedish prime Minister Erlander, and vouch for who Allan was, so that Erlander in turn could phone the Swedish Embassy in Tehran and inform the Third Secretary to immediately be issued a passport.

(9) This time, Marshal Beria chose a new tactic. Allan Karlson would be persuaded to contribute his knowledge in exchange for a considerable number of American dollars. And the person who would take care of the persuading was a scientist like Allan Karlson himself, not an awkward and clumsy agent. The agent in question ended up behind the wheel as the private chauffer of Yuri Borisovich Popov, a sympathetic and competent physicist from the innermost circle of Marshal Beria’s atomic weapons group.

(10) Allan needed a diversionary tactic like the one in Tehran six years earlier. Following the old Roman maxim of keeping to what you do best, he thought that some fireworks might be just the thing. And that was where the containers to Wonsan came into the picture. Allan couldn’t know, but he guessed that several of them contained explosives and if such a container were to catch fire in the dock area and if it started to explode …

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My take : An imaginary tale of a Swedish man who in his life of a hundred years had been round the globe, bumping into Prime Ministers and Presidents of most countries and solving some of their problems of the time.

          Now by fluke he gets into the company of some more happy-go- lucky persons, and has a rip-roaring time.

          An ‘Enid Blyton’ type of adventure book for grown-ups!

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Subject type : Fiction

Narrative Style : Good

Readability : Excellent

Reader’s Interest : Good

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 Available at

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Available on Amazon  at the time of posting the blog

Available on Flipkart at the time of posting the blog

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