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

The Hundred Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson, 2009 Hesperus Nova

     Allan Karlsson turns 100 years old and decides he's had enough of the old-folks home where he's been living in Malmkoping, Sweden. The man is in fair health for his age and decides to leave the facility before the birthday party thrown in his honor and populated by people Allan has no intention of placating. In his slippers and with minimal funding he makes his way to the local bus station.
    At the bus station, a young man entrusts Allan with a rolling suitcase. Despite his best attempts to warn the young man of his impending departure the young man closets himself in the lavatory and Allan takes the suitcase onto the bus with him. Thus ensues the adventure of a lifetime.
    Along the way, the reader discovers the centenarian's life has been full of adventure. Young Karlsson left school to begin work at the local dynamite factory before his teen years, he became an explosives expert and traveled the world. In young adulthood, he spent time in a sanatorium and steadfastly became apolitical. Allan Karlsson took part in the Spanish Civil War, met President Harry Truman and participated in the making of the atom bomb in Los Almos, New Mexico. He traveled to China and through the Himalayas into Iran where he met Winston Churchill. Despite his lack of political or religious affiliation Karlsson has faith that the world will turn out alright, which eventually leads back to Sweden.
     In modern day Allan's adventure involves a criminal organization, several murders, a suitcase full of cash, an elephant, and the interplay between incompetent law enforcement and an overbearing press cycle. Allan Karlson truly believes life is what it will be and one should take it as it comes, acting on this philosophy leads him into some of the greatest turning points of the 20th century with humor and a devil-may-care attitude written for adults.