If you’re looking for something somewhat bizarre, loosely based on historical events and an unlikely adventure, then this is the book for you!

I’d always had this on my reading list due to its huge success as an International Best Seller. Swedish author Jonas Jonasson worked in the media and entertainments industry for twenty years until he decided to sell all of his belongings and move abroad to Switzerland. Here was where he wrote and based his book ‘The Hundred-Year-Old-Man Who Climbed Out of The Window and Disappeared’. Jonasson invites readers to follow the extraordinary life of Allan Karlsson who escapes from his care home just before his elaborate one hundredth birthday. Still wearing his aptly named ‘pee slippers’, he travels to a nearby station, ends up stealing a suitcase full of millions, meets a convicted murderer, an elephant and partakes in a highway chase. Such absurd adventures are intwined with flashbacks of Allan’s earlier life which involved his alcoholism, meeting controversial historical figures such as Mao Tse-Tung and Stalin!

Despite the witty humour, dark satire and in-depth characters, I didn’t completely love the book. The writing style took me a while to get used to and I did find it overly bizzarre.

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