The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden: A Novel
Written by Jonas Jonasson and Rachel Willson-Broyles, (Translator)
Narrated by Peter Kenny
3/5
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About this audiobook
A wildly picaresque new novel from Jonas Jonasson, the author of the internationally bestselling The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
In a tiny shack in the largest township in South Africa, Nombeko Mayeki is born. Put to work at five years old and orphaned at ten, she quickly learns that the world expects nothing more from her than to die young, be it from drugs, alcohol, or just plain despair. But Nombeko has grander plans. She learns to read and write, and at just fifteen, using her cunning and fearlessness, she makes it out of Soweto with millions of smuggled diamonds in her possession. Then things take a turn for the worse....
Nombeko ends up the prisoner of an incompetent engineer in a research facility working on South Africa's secret nuclear arsenal. Yet the unstoppable Nombeko pulls off a daring escape to Sweden, where she meets twins named Holger One and Holger Two, who are carrying out a mission to bring down the Swedish monarchy...by any means necessary.
Nombeko's life ends up hopelessly intertwined with the lives of the twins, and when the twins arrange to kidnap the Swedish king and prime minister, it is up to our unlikely heroine to save the day—and possibly the world. In this wild romp, Jonasson tackles issues ranging from the pervasiveness of racism to the dangers of absolute power while telling a charming and hilarious story along the way. In the satirical voice that has earned him legions of fans the world over, Jonasson gives us another rollicking tale of how even the smallest of decisions can have sweeping—even global—consequences.
Jonas Jonasson
Jonas Jonasson was a journalist for the Expressen newspaper for many years. He became a media consultant and later on set up a company producing sports and events for Swedish television. He sold his company and moved abroad to work on his first novel. Jonasson now lives on the Swedish island Gotland in the Baltic Sea.
Reviews for The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden
493 ratings39 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Leo Waterman series from this author were all excellent, enjoyable stories!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is the second novel by Jonas Jonasson. I enjoyed this one more than his first.The novel opens on a young girl in South Africa, named Nombeko. Her life is full of challenges. She, however, is an optimist, and a survivor. The story follows her from South Africa to Sweden. Along the way she meets three Chinese girls who do not speak her language, the president of the People's Republic of China, twin brothers named Holger One and Holger Two, a potato farming countess, an angry young woman, the king of Sweden, and the prime minister of Sweden. The book is sort of a comedy of circumstances. "If you don't think you have enough problems, you should acquire a mammal in Sweden just hours before you're about to fly home to the other side of the world, and then insist that the animal must travel in your luggage."
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Hat so seine längen, bleibt jedenfalls weit hinter dem 100-jährigen zurück
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Die hochbegabte Südafrikanerin Nombeko, die mit 14 Jahren die Chefin des Latrinenbüros in Soweto wird, per Zufall an ein Vermögen in Form von Rohdiamanten gerät, kurz darauf von einem Weißen überfahren und daraufhin zu mehreren Jahren Frondiensten in dessen Haushalt verurteilt wird und in dieser Zeit beachtlichen Anteil am Bau mehrerer Atombomben aufweisen kann, ist die Hauptfigur dieser Geschichte. Wie sie sich aus ihren immer neuen misslichen Situationen (in die sie völlig unverschuldet gerät), stets wieder befreien kann, ist schräg und noch schräger. Da wird eine Atombombe quer über die Kontinente verschickt, ein Zwillingspaar Holger und Holger getauft und zu republikanischen Extremisten erzogen, ein König und ein Ministerpräsident entführt und Nombeko ist allzeit mit dabei bzw. darin verwickelt. Der Absurditäten ist kein Ende ;-)
Was im 'Hundertjährigen' noch einen Hauch von Realität hatte, ist in diesem Buch völlig auf die Spitze getrieben. Die Ereignisse überschlagen sich und eines ist unglaublicher als das andere. Mir ist das Alles ein bisschen zu viel des Guten, denn der Rahmen ist durchaus sehr realitätsnah. Die damaligen Geschehnisse nicht nur in Südafrika, nein, auch in USA, Europa usw. werden wahrheitsgetreu wiedergegeben, sodass sich Nombekos Geschichte dazu als besonders absurd darstellt. Etwas weniger wäre hier vielleicht mehr gewesen :-)
Jonassons Sprache ist wie bei seinem ersten Buch gewohnt ironisch und indirekt, was die Absurditäten noch verstärkt. So traten bei mir ab ca. der Mitte des Buches gewisse 'Abnutzungserscheinungen' auf. Dennoch: Es ist eine amüsante, wirklich unglaubliche Geschichte, die sich lockerleicht an einem Wochenende weglesen lest. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5After enjoying his previous book "The Hundred Year Old Man Who Jumped Out Of The Window and Disappeared" I was keen to read this, his latest. I found it very similar in writing style, but maybe just a little more far-fetched and unbelievable. Yes fiction doesn't mean factual but this stretched my realm of probability just a tad too far. Having said that, I had a few chuckles over the antics and outcomes of the varied characters and enjoyed the tying up of loose strings which left each of these characters, well nearly all of them …with a happy ending.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jonas Jonasson has a gift for political satire couched in extraordinary tales of endurance and intelligence. His characters are at once completely believable and extraordinary caricatures. You want to believe that people like this really do exist (and sometimes you shudder at the thought). The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden is a story of a girl who started at the bottom but struggled her way up through any means necessary. Hers is a story of patient determination to succeed and attain a happy, "normal" life. Much like the other book of his that I reviewed, this book is a rollicking (and at times quite raunchy) ride from beginning to end. For me, it was a solid 10/10. If you enjoy political satires with a bite then I think you'll enjoy this one.