July Week 3: The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared

Now this is a book that I've been dying to read for quite some time and I'm not ashamed to say that it's purely because of the title. Who wouldn't be drawn in by a book called 'The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared'?

Centenarian Allan Karlsson has led a remarkably adventurous life, and on his one-hundredth birthday decides to continue the adventure by climbing out of his bedroom window at Malmköping's Old People's Home. Alongside the resulting chain of events, the novel describes Allan's life until the present day and how it was that he accidentally gave both the West and then the East the knowledge to create an atom bomb; how he learned how to speak English, Chinese, Russian, Indonesian among others; how he met historical figures such as Mao Tse Tung, Stalin, and Churchill; and how a Swede so uninterested in politics somehow became a driving influence in many of his lifetime's wars and feuds. His fictional history is so unbelievable, so bizarre, that it somehow just has to be true.

I really enjoyed this book. Of course it's a little far-fetched, but it's written so well and I found Allan to be a charming, interesting character to read about. I wouldn't describe it to be as humorous as it's often advertised, but I did find myself smiling along with every turn of events and at Mr Karlsson's impressive knack of getting out of tricky situations. Definitely give this book a try if you're looking for something a little different to read this summer!