The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared (37 page)

You might think he could have made up his mind earlier, and been man enough to tell 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 Malmköping, 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 bad-tempered Director Alice.

It was only the Birthday Boy himself who didn’t intend to turn up. 

Allan and Amanda were very happy together. And they seemed made for each other. One was allergic to all talk of ideology and religion, while the other didn’t know what ideology meant and couldn’t for the life of her remember the name of the God she was supposed to pray to. Besides, it transpired one evening when the mutual closeness was especially intense, that Professor Lundborg must have been a bit careless with the surgical knife that August day in 1925, because Allan – to his own surprise – was capable of doing what he hitherto had seen only in movies.

On her eighty-fifth birthday, Amanda’s husband gave her a laptop with an Internet connection. Allan had heard that this Internet thing was something that young people enjoyed.

It took Amanda some time to learn how to log in, but she didn’t give up and within a few weeks she had created her own blog. She wrote all day long, about things high and low, old and new. For example, she wrote about her dear husband’s journeys and adventures the world over. Her intended public was her lady friends in Balinese society. Who else would find their way to it?

One day, Allan was sitting as usual on the veranda enjoying his breakfast when a gentleman in a suit turned up. The man
introduced
himself as a representative of the Indonesian Government and said that he had read some amazing things in a blog on the Internet. Now, on behalf of the president, he wished to make use of Mr Karlsson’s special knowledge, if what he had read turned out to be true.

‘And what do you want me to help you with if I may ask?’ said Allan. ‘There are only two things I can do better than most people. One of them is to make vodka from goats’ milk, and the other is to put together an atom bomb.’ 

‘That’s exactly what we’re interested in,’ said the man.

‘The goats’ milk?’

‘No,’ said the man. ‘Not the goats’ milk.’

Allan asked the representative of the Indonesian Government to sit down. And then he explained that he had given the Bomb to Stalin and that had been a mistake because Stalin was as crazy as they come. So first of all Allan wanted to know about the mental state of the Indonesian president. The Government representative replied that President Yudhoyono was a very wise and responsible person.

‘I am glad to hear it,’ said Allan. ‘In that case I’d be happy to help out.’

And that’s what he did.

An extra thank you to Micke, Liza, Rixon, Maud and Uncle Hans.

– Jonas

Jonas Jonasson was born in 1961 in the small town of Växjö in Sweden. After language studies at the University of Gothenburg he became a journalist, working first for the regional newspaper
Smålandsposten
and then for
Expressen
. Some years later he started the successful media consulting and television
production
company called OTW. After more than twenty years
working
in media, television and newspapers he was completely exhausted and decided to sell everything, including his shares in the company, and move abroad. He left for the village of Ponte Tresa in Switzerland where he lived for three years with his family. During this time he finished the novel he had been writing for the last few years,
The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who
Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared
. Today he lives in the countryside on the island of Gotland in Sweden, with his son, cats and chickens.

‘First-rate’
Der Spiegel
,
Germany

‘A mixture of road movie and picaresque novel in modern packaging. A great pleasure to read’
NDR
Kultur
, Germany

‘Completely crazy, an incredibly funny story’
Aftonbladet,
Sweden

‘It’s a story that twists and turns every action and word. The language is ingenious and surprisingly different’
Nerikea Allehanda,
Sweden

‘The new international phenomenon… overflowing with humour’
El Mundo,
Spain

‘Swedish black comic novel that reads like a road trip with Forrest Gump at the wheel’
NU.nl,
Netherlands

‘Zany picaresque novel’
Trouw
, Netherlands

‘Dynamite comedy’
Le Figaro
, France

‘Hilarious… a publishing phenomenon’
Corriere della Sera
, Italy

‘Incredibly charming, told with a cheery simplicity’
Dagbladet,
Norway

‘Hilarious… a celebration of absurd humour’
Helsingin Sanomat
, Finland

‘Bestseller joins the Nordic invasion of Britain. Hesperus Press … is likely to show its bigger rivals how wrong they were to turn it down’
The Observer,
UK

How did you come up with the idea of making the main
character
of your book a hundred-year-old man who goes on the run around Sweden?

The story was among at least twenty others in my head. I started because of the book’s title – I immediately fell in love with it once I had invented it. I said to myself that I wanted to read a book with such a title; I only had to write it first! I also needed the main character to be a hundred years old to have lived through the whole twentieth century, to use him as a guide in the parallel story along with the road trip in Sweden today.

How do you write a book that becomes a bestselling novel?

I am sure there as many ways as there are bestselling novels. My way was to write a feel-good novel. They say that laughter prolongs one’s life. Imagine if I have prolonged someone’s life!

Are you just as funny in everyday life? You have to be, because it’s a hilarious story.

I think it was Mark Twain who said something like this: ‘To read an interesting book and then to meet the author in question, is like first having a great goose liver paté only to afterwards meet the goose.’ (I am sorry, Mr Twain, if I have remembered this quote incorrectly.)

How do you foresee yourself as a hundred-year-old man?

I hope that by then I will have Allan Karlsson’s care-free attitude. But – unlike Allan – I hope that I am still interested in political and social issues. Maybe I’ll go on tours to schools or
colleges to make teenagers understand that life is an adventure, very much worth living (and that they ain’t seen nothing yet!)

What would you do if you were one hundred and had a chance to ‘climb out of the window’ and disappear? What kind of adventure would you like to experience?

I think that I’ve already climbed out of the window a few times in life. To me climbing out would actually maybe be to stay where I am now, with my son, the poultry house, the cat. To go to the village sauna each Saturday afternoon, to sit there among grumpy old men, just to be updated about what’s happening in the neighbourhood. But I think a lot of people really should consider the possibility of climbing out of their window. My perspective is that we live only once, I cannot be sure but that is what I believe. I think that if you’ve once asked yourself: ‘Should I…’ then the answer should be: ‘Yes!’ Otherwise, how would you ever get to know that you shouldn’t?

• What do you think are the central themes of the book?
  
• Why do you think the author chose to make the main character one hundred years old?
  
• Why do you think Allan climbed out of the window in the first place?
  
• Did you enjoy the way the novel switched from the present day to the past? What do you think this structure brought to your experience of the novel?
  
• The author uses modern historical events as a backdrop to the plot. How did you feel this affected your response to the novel?
  
• How much of a person’s character do you think is shaped by the times in which they live?
  
• What do you think drove Allan to steal the suitcase?
  
• Did you prefer Allan’s character as a younger man or older man? Do you feel your opinion of him changed over the course of the book?
  
• What do you think of Allan’s lack of political interest and stance and how does this affect the story?
  
• Did you enjoy the use of humour? Which moments stood out to you?
  
• What do you think of Allan’s laid back attitude to life and his lack of interest in love and sex?
  
• Were you happy when Allan and Amanda got together or did you find it an unlikely pairing?
  
• In what ways does the book explore the bonds of friendship?
  
• What do you think all the main characters had in common, if anything?
  
• Who do you feel most sorry for in the book and why?
  
• If you were Detective Inspector Aronsson, how would you have handled the investigation?
  
• Are there other any historical figures or moments you would have liked to have featured in the book?
  
• Why do you think the author repeated the same paragraph at the start and end of the book?
  
• Was the ending satisfying? Why or why not?
  

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