The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden

by Jonas Jonasson

Paperback, 2015

Status

Available

Call number

839.738

Genres

General Fiction

All Topics

Fiction

Publication

Ecco (2015), Edition: Reprint, 400 pages

Description

"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"--from publisher's web site.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member BoundTogetherForGood

This 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."

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LibraryThing member readingwithtea

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

Nombeko, born into Soweto’s slums, uses her prodigious mathematical ability to rise out of the latrine sanitation management position she has achieved by age 14, and has the misfortune to be run over by a very drunk

nuclear engineer the minute she leaves Soweto. South Africa of the 1970s being what it is, she finds herself alternately helping the engineer with his calculations, and scrubbing his floor. Escape comes in the form of a ticket to Sweden…

Much like The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window and Disappeared, the plot for this novel is more than slightly absurd. But that’s fine with me when it’s written as captivatingly as this. The various concepts of a person not existing, accidental creation of a 7th atomic bomb, Sweden’s deeply cautious politics – all feel like Jonassen is making little digs at the world, without taking himself too seriously. Full of incredible (seriously, unbelievable) coincidences and unfortunate events, it’s a captivating read.

Nombeko is a wonderful character, somewhat everygirlish but with occasional violent tendencies which amused me. She has the same improbably frequent ideas for getting out of scrapes (but the book wouldn’t be any fun if she wasn’t in scrapes and then didn’t get out of them). Holger One and Two couldn’t be more different, and Celestine and her potato-farming countess grandmother are a fabulous double act.

I would very definitely recommend this, particularly if you are stuck in Heathrow for four hours and then on a plane going to the wrong airport.

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LibraryThing member Heduanna

This was so much fun! For the first hundred pages, anyway: it was really compulsive. But by the end, it feels like a very overlong episode of Inspector Gadget: cardboard cutout characters in absurd situations acting in ridiculous ways. With a great deal of chopping, it could still be a great little

novella, but most of its 400 pages would have to go.

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LibraryThing member jennyo

I loved this book! It was crazy and clever and funny and I adored the characters, even the annoying ones. I have no idea how Jonasson dreamed up a plot like this, but he's a genius. I will seek out his other books. I can't imagine how there could be another book as purely entertaining as this one,

but I'm hopeful!

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LibraryThing member missizicks

Another witty, fast-paced novel from Jonasson. Similar structure to The Hundred-Year Old Man, but not quite as tightly plotted somehow. I enjoy his observations on the crazy contradictions of the world, and the way we are all stitched together globally. The characters are well written, the story

largely plausible. A good choice for a quick and entertaining read.

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LibraryThing member nzlibrarygirl

Quirky ,off beat and fun. Follows strong minded Nombeko from life as a 5yr old latrine cleaner in Soweto through myriad improbable and hilarious escapades to Sweden where she teams up with non-existent twin Holger 2 in a desperate bid to rid herself and her adopted country of a non-existent but

very real atomic bomb while rescuing the king from Holger 1, an incompetent but very determined revolutionary.

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LibraryThing member PaulaCheg

Same author as the 100 year old man who climbed out the window and disappeared. A romp where you need to suspend reality a bit but fun.

LibraryThing member DavidO1103

Madcap romp of a sweet story that features a few wonderful characters and touches on much of modern South African and European history... Quite wonderful. By the author of The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window... etc. Both lovely books.

LibraryThing member Fliss88

After 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.

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LibraryThing member AliceaP

Jonas 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.

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LibraryThing member Gwendydd

This is a fun and entertaining read. It's a lot like a Pink Panther movie - ridiculous, slapstick, and involving a lot of ludicrous coincidences. It's total fluff, but it's engaging and fun.

LibraryThing member Gwendydd

This is a fun and entertaining read. It's a lot like a Pink Panther movie - ridiculous, slapstick, and involving a lot of ludicrous coincidences. It's total fluff, but it's engaging and fun.

LibraryThing member rglossne

Funny lighthearted farce

This is the story of Nombeko, who stars life emptying latrines in the Johannesburg slums, and through luck, courage and intelligence ends up in a completely different place. Along the way we meet Swedish twins who share a identity if not a worldview , three Chinese sisters

who are expert art forgers, a potato farming countess and her anarchist granddaughter, and of course the king of Sweden.

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LibraryThing member shazjhb

Loved the beginning but then it was a bit much

LibraryThing member brakketh

I really enjoyed this humourous and light-hearted approach to the, at times, ridiculousness of political power.

LibraryThing member parvita

This book is very good and very entertaining. Jonasson has the knowledge of each countries and put his wild, crazy imagination in making up a story that you can actually picture it happen. Some people looks really thick in this book, but they do exist in the real world. Some part cynical, some part

honest, I guarantee you will laugh all the way until you finish the book.

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LibraryThing member triscuit

Lost interest after first few chapters. May try again one day.

LibraryThing member sushitori

Amusing story but very quirky. The characters were interesting and the plot was intriguing – a poor South African girl who’s a math genius escapes from enforced servitude to prevent the assassination of the King of Sweden. There was plenty of political and social commentary on the state of the

world, details about the folly of politicians and bureaucrats, and information on South African policy and Swedish heads of state, too much in all. We also get a lot of background on major and minor characters, most of which is quite humorous. Unfortunately, some of them are just too stupid to be believable and turn into comic book characters performing in a slapstick comedy of errors. For example, one falls out of a plane, lands in a haystack, misses the pitchfork in the haystack, and survives to tell the tale. There are way too many of these improbable, tall tales that became silly, then boring, and finally repetitious. Even though Jonasson gives us a happy ending with all the loose strings tied up, even that was too far-fetched. And by the way, the title is a bit misleading because the heroine doesn’t actually save the king of Sweden; I’ll leave it at that so I don’t spoil the ending for you.

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LibraryThing member tandah

Quirky, funny, sharp but too long

LibraryThing member brangwinn

I read this book while on pain killers for foot surgery and a subsequent infection. It was just what I needed . No deep thinking, an absolutely ridiculous plot and goofy characters. It made for fun, no-thinking required reading while recovering from medical complications

LibraryThing member Neale

A humorous story well told. The author waves the story well and brings all the prices of the puzzle together well. Worth a read.

LibraryThing member Andrew-theQM

This was a patchy book, there were parts where it was very enjoyable and other parts where it dragged. Certainly the weakest of the three I have read by this author but overall not sorry I read it. It still had the quirkiness of the other two books, and like with the Hundred Year Old Man it

portrayed world events well against the backdrop of the story. I will continue to read books by this author.

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LibraryThing member Carlathelibrarian

I loved Jonasson's previous book the 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, so had high expectations for this one. I was a little disappointed. There were two separate stories going on and jumping around in time at the beginning so it was a little confusing. Once I got halfway

through, I enjoyed the rest of the book. It was a little crazy, quirky and silly, but enjoyable. The main characters are not the most likable, but the situations they get themselves in save the story.

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LibraryThing member grandpahobo

Fantastic story, brilliantly written.

LibraryThing member paulhock

I have to admit I like this author's style of writing and sense of humour, although it may not be for everyone.

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