Book Review: Live for A Hundred and more

I remembered standing in a bookstore, contemplating what book I should took from the shelf. I had a hard time making a decision, because there were so many books from so many famous authors. I thought it wouldn't be so bad to read a book from an author I never heard of before, and then looked for a good book cover design. It was the easiest way out.  That was when I came upon this book I'm about to tell you. The title isn't the easiest to remember and a mouthful to say, but it was exactly what drawn me into buying it. Without further ado, the book I'm talking about is:

"The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared"

I'm 100% sure you all agree when I said the title is long enough and is a complete sentence without anything left out. I was definitely intrigued and it instantly peaked my interest. A book about an old man. Hm..Sounds interesting. And interesting it was and more. Nothing less. 

As the title clearly stated, the book told the story about 1 man who has lived for 100 years, Allan Karllson. Allan is a Swede (yes, the author is Swede, the book is translated from Swedish), and on 2nd May 2005, from the Old's People Home in the town of Malmkoping, a birthday party is thrown for Allan, who turns 100 on this very day. But Allan had something else in mind. In fact, he was the only one who didn't turn up for his own party. 

The novel switched from the present day to the past smoothly, going back and forth narrating a story about Allan's escapades, and his younger days that was filled with element of surprises and luck. After he climbed out of the window and disappeared, Allan stole a man's suitcase, which to his surprise, was full of cash. He stumbled upon an ex-petty thief in a small town in Sweden, who later became his accomplice, involved with criminals, in several murders, met some more accomplices (3 in totals), and travelled (or ran away) together from incompetent police, with an elephant named Sonya, and a dog. 

What so special about this novel is the way the author used real historical events and important figures from the world has ever known, connected them to Allan and made him a key role behind the scenes in some of the momentous events of the twentieth century. This now one hundred year old man had had a cup of tea with Stalin, helped the creation of nuclear bomb that fell upon Hiroshima and Nagasaki, somehow saved Winston Churchill from a murder attempt, received money from Mao Tse Tung, befriending Einstein's less genius brother, became a CIA agent,  and more. The seemingly impossible list could go on and on. It never ceased to amaze me to watch Allan's past life unfolded in a neatly sown story and in a comprehensive, logical way that are whimsical and out of this world. Allan was an expert in making explosion. And that very skills went a long way, and proved to be useful in the era he lived in. 

The life Allan lived in the past 100 years is certainly memorable, and the present is anything but boring. From the moment he climbed out of the window, incident after incident kept happening. How could an old man have such an adventure? You never know until you read the book yourself. Be prepared to laugh and to shake your head in amazement. 

I believe the novel told the truth when they said you're never too old for an adventure...