The centenarian who climbed out the window and disappeared
The centenarian who climbed out the window and disappeared (original Swedish title: Hundraåringen som klev ut genom fönstret och försvann ) is the debut novel by the Swedish journalist and author Jonas Jonasson . The novel was published by Piratförlaget in 2009 , became Sweden’s best-selling book in 2010 and quickly became an international bestseller . His translation rights were sold in at least 35 countries by 2013. By June 2014, the book had sold over 6 million copies worldwide.
The novel was published in German in August 2011 by the publisher carl's books of the publishing group Random House (translator: Wibke Kuhn ) and reached the top ten of the Spiegel bestseller list created by the book report by the end of September . The book was number 1 on the Spiegel bestseller list for 31 weeks in 2012 . In November 2013 the paperback was published by btb-Verlag in Munich .
action
One hour before the officially scheduled celebration of his 100th birthday, Allan Karlsson decides to escape from his room in the Malmköping old people's home in order to escape the expected hype about himself. At the bus station, a young man who urgently needs to go to the toilet asks him to take care of his suitcase. Without a doubt, Allan got on the bus to Strängnäs with this luggage . Halfway there, he gets out and meets the seventy-year-old casual thief Julius Jonsson at an abandoned train station, whom he frankly tells about his little adventure and who then invites him to a moose goulash and a couple of glasses of schnapps. Then the young man reappears. After his suitcase disappeared, he immediately started the chase and confronts Julius. Later it turns out that he is a member of the criminal biker club Never again . At the last moment, Allan, who was in the toilet when the pursuer arrived, manages to overpower him and lock him in a cold room . Julius and Allan then break open the suitcase and, to their astonishment, find 50 million Swedish kronor in it , which came from a drug deal. The next morning the young man froze to death in the refrigerator, whereupon they decide to run away with the money and dispose of the body on the way.
A bizarre criminal story develops, in the course of which Allan, Julius, the long-term student and former takeaway owner Benny Ljungberg and Gunilla Björklund alias "the beautiful woman", who lives alone on her farm, with her elephant Sonja, who escaped from a circus in Växjö, run away with gangsters, Police, prosecutors and curious reporters have to grapple before they finally arrive happily at a hotel on the island of Bali .
In parallel to the events of 2005, the life story of the main character is told: Allan Karlsson is drawn into the most important political events of the 20th century against his will, but manages to stay out of all ideological entanglements. His father went to Russia in 1917, where he changed from an ardent socialist to an admirer of the last tsar, Nicholas II, and finally fell in the fight against the Bolsheviks when he was defending his property, which had been declared an "independent republic". Allan then left school at the age of nine and became a recognized explosives expert in a nitroglycerin factory. When a local wholesaler dies in an explosives accident, Allan is classified as "socially dangerous", admitted to the clinic of the Swedish racial researcher Herman Lundborg and forcibly sterilized there. He is only allowed to leave the clinic after seven years, as he is now considered "cured". He returns to his hometown, blows up his own house and then works again in an explosives factory.
There an escaped Spanish revolutionary persuades him to go to Spain with him. He becomes involved in the fighting of the Spanish Civil War and, rather by accident, saves the life of General Franco , who becomes his best friend. Allan Karlsson's eventful journey through world history begins. It leads him first as an assistant to the Manhattan project in the USA, where the decisive tip for building the atomic bomb later earned him Harry S. Truman's friendship . Then he goes to China with Song Meiling , Chiang Kai-shek's wife , where he saves the life of Mao Zedong's future wife Jiang Qing and finally ends up in Iran after an arduous crossing of the Himalayas , from where he, after being the headquarters of the secret service blown up, flies to London with Winston Churchill .
Back in Sweden, a Soviet physicist persuades him to help the Soviets build an atomic bomb in Moscow . Careless remarks at dinner made him angry with Stalin , was arrested and sent to a labor camp in Vladivostok , from which he had a spectacular escape after five years. Allan travels to Indonesia with Herbert Einstein, Albert Einstein's mentally limited half-brother, via North Korea and China, where Mao Zedong gives him a "huge pile of Dollahs" from the American development fund out of gratitude . There he spends 15 years on vacation before an Indonesian politician, wife of his friend Herbert, takes him to Paris as an “embassy employee”. After many more adventures and a career as a spy for the CIA , Allan returned to Sweden at the age of 80 and bought a house near his home town. When a fox kills his beloved cat Molotov , Allan makes an explosives trap, which not only catches the fox but also destroys the entire property. The 99-year-old is then sent to a retirement home, where he waits for his death until he climbs out of the window shortly before the celebration of his 100th birthday and searches for the distance.
review
The picaresque novel was received positively by the majority of critics. So wrote z. B. the Süddeutsche Zeitung :
"In inventing absurd constellations and confrontations, Jonas Jonasson developed an exuberant imagination, and characters like Herbert Einstein, the dumb brother of the great Albert, will give the novel a touch of immortality."
The North German Broadcasting ruled:
“Jonas Jonasson is brilliantly entertaining with his debut. He describes his characters lovingly, has a good dose of wit and his punch lines are perfect. […] 'The centenarian who climbed out the window and disappeared' is a mixture of road movie and picaresque novel in modern packaging. Great reading pleasure - or listening pleasure, because the audio book version is read by the great Otto Sander . "
Film adaptations
In 2013 the book was filmed under the direction of Felix Herngren . The main roles are played by Robert Gustafsson (Allan), born in 1964 , Iwar Wiklander (Julius) and Mia Skäringer (Gunilla). The cinema release was on March 20, 2014. The official German Film and Media Assessment (FBW) awarded the film the title "Particularly valuable".
In 2016, the sequel The Hundred and One Year Old Who Didn't Pay the Bill and disappeared .
Will Ferrell will produce an American remake and take on the lead role, as it became known in late August 2017.
radio play
In 2013, Leonhard Koppelmann directed the novel based on an adaptation by Dr. Heinz Sommer as a radio play for Hessischer Rundfunk . It played Matthias Habich (Allan), Walter Renneisen (Julius), Charly Hübner (Benny), Marion Breckwoldt (Gunilla), Christian Redl (Commissioner), Timo Dierkes (Piranha), Wolf-Dietrich Sprenger (prosecutor), Werner Wölbern (Bosse ), Hans Diehl (Einstein), Rosemarie Fendel (Amanda), Nico Holonics , Frauke Poolman , Udo Schenk u. v. a. Manfred Honetschlaeger composed and arranged the music for the HR big band . The production has been published on CD by Hörverlag , ISBN 978-3-8445-1010-2 .
continuation
In 2018 Jonasson published the novel Hundraettåringen - som tänkte att han tänkte för mycket (in German: “The centenarian who came back to save the world”).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kevin Maher : The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who ... became a movie star , thetimes.co.uk, June 27, 2014, accessed August 25, 2014.
- ↑ The centenarian who climbed out the window and disappeared. 5th place paperback fiction . (No longer available online.) In: Buchreport , 47/2013. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013 ; Retrieved November 14, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ KulturSPIEGEL paperback bestseller list. 4th place paperback fiction. In: Der Spiegel , 46/2013. Retrieved November 14, 2013 .
- ↑ Kristina Maidt-Zinke: To a vodka with Einstein's tumbem brother. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . August 13, 2012, accessed November 14, 2013 .
- ↑ Maren Ahring: The centenarian who climbed out of the window and disappeared. In: ndr.de/kultur. September 8, 2011, archived from the original on April 20, 2014 ; Retrieved November 14, 2013 .
- ↑ The centenarian who climbed out the window and disappeared. In: filmstarts.de. Retrieved November 14, 2013 .
- ↑ Will Ferrell, who starred in The Centenary Who Got A Window remake . In: moviepilot.de . August 24, 2017 ( moviepilot.de [accessed August 24, 2017]).
