The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

First of all, a big thank you to Mia Churcher at Hesperus Press who supplied a review copy of The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared.  You can follow Hesperus Press on twitter @HesperusPress and they have their very own blog which you can follow and get involved in here.

When I first heard about The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared I was, quite simply, intrigued.  It sounded unique, and I couldn't imagine what I was letting myself in for when I opened the first page and began to experience the adventure of Allan Karrlsson (the hundred year old man, who doesn't wish to attend his hundredth birthday party, so he embarks on an adventure you couldn't even begin to dream up if you tried).

This book translates fabulously from Swedish (hats off to the translator, Rod Bradbury) and conjures up a book which will take you beyond your wildest dreams.  The thing I loved about this book is that it is so lighthearted.  It starts on in 2005, the day of Allan's hundredth birthday but the chapters soon start to skip between the past and the present.  Chapter by chapter, you uncover the full story and history behind the man who is Allan Karlsson.  This skipping doesn't break up the flow of the story at all; it is absolutely seamless.

Now, I don't claim to know a huge amount about history (it was not my subject of choice at school), so I cannot tell you how accurate the tales are, but you will soon discover that Allan has been now only involved in, but been the key feature, to some of the most momentous events in the twentieth century.  Despite his aversion to politics, he becomes entirely tangled up in it!

The characters are fabulously created and maintained throughout.  I loved that they were quite often referred to by way of a description, rather than by name, for chunks of the book before you actually came to learn their names.  It depicted exactly how a hundred-year-old man might think and talk.

All in all, I loved reading the adventure, I loved meeting the characters and following them along their sometimes-ludicrous journey!  The tale is extremely well woven together and has a very satisfying ending.

Finally, CONGRATULATIONS to Jonas Jonasson and Hesperus Press, as they are currently celebrating selling over 1,000,000 (yes, that is one million) copies of the book!  Will you add to that number? Get yourself a copy, and I'd love to know what you thought.....