The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
- For the film based on the novel, see The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared (film)
 The cover of the Swedish original version of the book. | |
| Author | Jonas Jonasson |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Eric Thunfors |
| Country | Sweden |
| Language | Swedish |
| Publisher | Piratförlaget |
Publication date | 9 September 2009 |
Published in English | 12 July 2012 |
| Pages | 391 pages |
| ISBN | 978-91-642-0296-3 |
The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared (Swedish: Hundraåringen som klev ut genom fönstret och försvann, also known as The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared (UK)[1] and The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared in the US) is a 2009 comic novel by the Swedish author Jonas Jonasson.
Plot
Allan Karlsson is about to celebrate his hundredth birthday, and a party is planned at his retirement home. Allan is alert despite his age, but is not interested in attending the party. Instead he climbs out the window and disappears. He walks in his slippers to the nearest bus station, intending to travel as far as his available cash will allow. While at the bus station, an angry young man with a suitcase too big to fit it and himself inside the toilet he desperately needed to give it to Allan and tells him to hold it for him and wait. Within half a minute Allan's bus arrives and Allan takes the suitcase with him to the bus and boards. The young angry man misses the bus. The suitcase turns out to be stuffed with drug money, and Karlsson is chased by drug dealers trying recover their lost money. The retirement home calls the police to look for Allan. The police have no knowledge of the money and are only looking for Allan who is somewhat absent minded. Allan is simply trying to escape his retirement home confinement and gets caught up in criminal activity by accident so he ends up, unknowingly, being hunted by the police and murderous criminals.
The novel intercuts Karlsson's adventures as a centenarian with increasingly fantastic past episodes from his long life. As the novel proceeds it transpires that Karlsson had helped to make the atom bomb, became good friends with Harry S. Truman and General Franco, knew Stalin, Kim Jong-il, Mao Tse-tung, and Soong Mei-ling, foiled an assassination plot against Winston Churchill, and was a participant behind the scenes in many of the key events of the twentieth century.
Release and reception
The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared was released as hardback and audiobook in 2009, and as paperback in 2010.[2] It became the best selling book in Sweden in 2010 and by July 2012 had sold three million copies worldwide.[3] The audiobook, read by the actor Björn Granath, won the Iris Ljudbokspris award in 2010.[4] The book was published in the United Kingdom by Hesperus Press on 12 July 2012[5] and in the United States by Hyperion Books on 11 September 2012.
References
- ↑ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hundred-Year-Old-Man-Climbed-Window-Disappeared/dp/0349141800
- ↑ "Hundraåringen som klev ut genom fönstret och försvann" (in Swedish). Piratförlaget. Archived from the original on 2 March 2012. Retrieved 2 March 2012.
- ↑ ""Hundraåringen" årets mest sålda bok". Svenska Dagbladet (in Swedish). 21 January 2011. Archived from the original on 2 March 2012. Retrieved 2 March 2012.
- ↑ Josefsson, Erika (25 September 2010). "Årets bästa ljudbok!". Gefle Dagblad (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 2 March 2012. Retrieved 2 March 2012.
- ↑ Alberge, Dalya (4 March 2012). "Swedish bestseller has the last laugh". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 12 March 2012. Retrieved 12 March 2012.