The Hundred-Year-Old Man: A Review

 RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared and The Accidental Further Adventures of the Hundred-Year-Old Man are the two books in a duology by Swedish author, Jonas Jonasson. The two books follow the adventures of centenarian Allan Karlsson after he decides to escape from his nursing home on the morning of his 100^thbirthday. The adventures take him across Sweden and across the world, as he recounts the stories from his past which are so unbelievable that they must be true!

 

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared

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 100^th 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 20^thcentury, but actually played a key role in them.

 

The Accidental Further Adventures of the Hundred-Year-Old Man

It all begins with a hot air balloon trip and three bottles of champagne. Allan and Julius are ready for some spectacular views, but they’re not expecting to land in the sea and be rescued by a North Korean ship, and they could never have imagined that the captain of the ship would be harbouring a suitcase full of contraband uranium, on a nuclear weapons mission for Kim Jong-un…

Soon Allan and Julius are at the centre of a complex diplomatic crisis involving world figures from the Swedish foreign minister to Angela Merkel and President Trump. Things are about to get very complicated…

Jonas Jonasson’s books on the wild adventures of a hundred-year-old man from Sweden are as amazing as they are bizarre. In the first book, 100-year-old Allan Karlsson climbs out of his bedroom window in his care home on the morning of his birthday party wearing only his slippers and taking nothing with him. He makes his way to the bus station with the intention to travel as far as the cash he has will allow. There he meets a young man who asks Allan to watch his large suitcase while he goes to the toilet, being rude to Allan whilst doing so. While the young man is away, Allan decides to take the suitcase with him as his bus arrives. The suitcase turns out to be full of drug money, resulting in Allan being chased by the drug gang as well as being classed as a missing person by the police after failing to turn up for his party. While on the run, Allan makes friends with a petty thief called Julius, a hot-dog proprietor called Benny, and a red-headed beauty with an elephant and a dog. The group gets caught up in a number of criminal activities, such as murder, as they try to outrun the drug gang. The story parallels insane stories from Allan’s past, including how he worked in a dynamite factory which led to him being involved in the Spanish civil war, how he helped to make the atom bomb while becoming good friends with President Harry S. Truman, how he meets famous world leaders such as Joseph Stalin, Kim Il-sung and Mao Tse-tung. 

The second book takes place after the first as Allan is approaching his 101^st birthday in Indonesia with Julius. The money from the suitcase is quickly dwindling away and the pair are running up a large bill at their hotel. To celebrate Allan’s 101^st birthday, they decide to go on a hot-air balloon ride. However that is where it all goes wrong. The balloon detaches from the rope and flies away with only the pair in it. They end up flying over the Indian Ocean, crashing into the ocean, and being picked up by a North Korean ship, which is transporting four kilograms of uranium. As the captain is reluctant to let the pair on the ship, Allan claims to be a nuclear weapons expert. This leads to the pair meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and the Swedish UN ambassador. But the adventures don’t stop there. Allan and Julius end up meeting several other politicians and world leaders as they try to get back to Sweden, including Donald Trump and Angela Merkel. 

 

I read the first book a good few years ago and I loved it. It was far-fetched, insane and had so many surprising events that I was hooked. The second book has the same level of insanity when it comes to the adventures, events so insane that of course it all happened to Allan Karlsson. The books really send the message that life doesn’t have to stop or be boring just because you’ve reached a certain age. Life is what you make it and to take the chances you get for a new adventure. These books link together key historical events and the idea that they all happened or were influenced by one man is incredible. With tongue-in-cheek humour and a unique outlook on life, Allan Karlsson’s life makes for a very interesting read. I recommend these books to anyone looking to read a light-hearted, funny, sometimes political book that takes the view of “life doesn’t need to stop when youre old”. 

 

Until next time, I’ll continue reading with wanderlust.

📚🧳✈️🗺