Analfabeten som kunde räkna
I spent my New Year in Sweden this year with a group of Swedish friends I knew from Singapore who had moved back to their charming and snowy country. And, naturally, I wanted a book by a Swedish author to accompany me on my travels.
Despite the fact that Sweden has a long literary history and a well-read population, I actually had quite a lot of trouble finding a Swedish book to read. Not that there aren't many Swedish authors, of course. In my searches, I found dozens and dozens of Swedish thrillers and hard-boiled detective stories. Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy comes to mind, but there are heaps of others. The genre isn't really my cup of tea, so I kept searching. Ann Morgan's choice, Montecore by Jonas Hassen Khemiri, seemed interesting – an award-winning book exploring the Swedish immigrant experience – but wasn't available here in Singapore from either bookshop or my usual online retailer.
My searching continued and eventually I came across Jonas Jonasson. I'm really surprised (by my poor searching skills?) that it took so long to come up with his name. Jonasson is the author of best-selling The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, which is now being made into a movie. I'd heard of that book, of course, but had no idea that the author was Swedish!
The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden is a quirky, character-driven story that's hard not to like. I found myself chuckling along as I read about the exploits of Nombeko Mayeki, an illiterate orphan from Soweto who changes the fate of Sweden in the most whimsical and picaresque way. Tack så mycket, Sweden, from throwing this one my way!
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