A well-thumbed copy

This book was selected for September by Heartland Book Club. Coincidentally, this is the second Scandinavian author I read recently. The Swedish book is translated into English by Rod Bradbury.

Written in an omniscient POV, the readers swoop in and out of the different character's head as actions unfold. There are plenty of actions as the chapters flip between the past and present.

On Allen Karlson's 100th birthday, he climbs out of the window in his bedroom of the nursing home which he has been living in for a few months, to escape from the regiments of institutional living. He makes his way to the bus stop, buys a ticket to the nearest village with whatever money he has on him. While there, he steals a suitcase from a man who has requested for him to keep watch as he takes a leak in the bathroom. Unbeknownst to him, the suitcase belongs to a local gangster, and contains fifty million crowns, thereby setting the gang to pursue him when they discover the loss. The police, comprising mainly the Chief Inspector and the Prosecutor, are also looking for him as his disappearance from his birthday party which is supposedly to be attended by the Mayor and covered by the local press, has become a news sensation. When three of the gang members are found dead, Allen becomes the prime murder suspect.

Allen makes a few friends while trying to escape the gang. Like him, they are lonely and being offered to share the loot sounds like a good deal to help this old man out.

Allen has lived a rich life in his one hundred years of living, not only meeting legendary historical figures like Truman,Stalin, Chairman Mao and his wife Jiang Qing, Churchill but becoming friends with them, and in many instances, had a hand in charting history in a comical way. (Remember, this is fiction!)

Someone in my book club said this book reminds her of the movie Forrest Gump. She is right. In many ways, Allen has the fortune to escape many near death incidences, and is saved by the mere stroke of luck often. He suffered too, although his sufferings were largely glossed over, as the time he climbed the Himalayas to escape North Korea into Iran, or when he was made a prisoner of war in Russia for many years, which he took it all in his strike.

This is a satirical historical fiction and although not factual, I learn a thing or two as to who was leading the countries before the world wars broke out. There are two factions in my book club, one group of two who hate the book and the rest who love it. I totally enjoyed reading this and laughed out loud many times. Thank goodness I mostly read in bed and not in public.

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