The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson - £3.85 from Amazon
I was quite excited to have finished my first year of an English degree at university, as I can now read books for pleasure which I haven't been able to do since September.
After reading Jonasson's first novel The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared (£8.99 from Amazon) I was excited to read his follow up novel. It was not a disappointment.
Warning - the section includes spoilers
The story stars Nombeko, a black South African 'illiterate' living in a shanty town during the apartheid regime. It mirrors her life with that of a Swedish family who gives birth to identical twin boys, Holger 1 and Holger 2, only one of whom officially exists... through Jonasson's wonderful series of unlikely events, the three end up meeting in Gnesta, Sweden. The adventure does not end there, as Nombeko has a three megaton atomic bomb which also does not exist. As she and Holger Two intend to hand it over to the Swedish authorities, Holder One and his angry-at-the-system girlfriend Celestine plan to use the bomb in order to force the king to abdicate.
It's a wonderful book. It brings attention to the idea of what it really means to exist as a human being (and as an atomic bomb) and the kinds of people that we really leave in charge of our countries. But it's also just as funny as Jonasson's first book. I would definitely recommend it.
Have you been reading anything lately?
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