The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared is a feel good book based mainly in Sweden that covers the exploits of Allan Karlsson, who on the day of his 100th birthday decides to climb out of a window of the care home he lives in and see where the road takes him. It involves theft, murder and an elephant.
The main character Allan Karlsson has the outlook on life of taking things as they come and whatever will be will be. It’s exactly this attitude that leads him to give the secret of the atom bomb to several nations in the cold war, walk across the himalayas, become good friends with Einsteins brother, meet with several different real life world leaders and ultimately have several adventures of a lifetime.
The author does that amazing job of running past and present story lines at the same time and getting me to pause and reflect on my life at several moments throughout the book. He is clearly into his politics as the past timeline is based around several key politicians and although neither I nor Allan Karlsson has any interest in politics it’s nothing that someone with a basic understanding of history can’t follow.
Unfortunately it took me several months to read this book although I would have gladly sat down and read it straight through if I’d had a day to myself and highly recommend doing just that if you have spare rainy afternoon.
Overall: 83%