Jonas Jonasson's "The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden"

One of the books that were given as a birthday present this year was Jonas Jonasson’s “The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden”. I am currently taking a break from Marcel Proust’s “In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower” and now opting for something that’s easier to read (more like a bedside-table or a bathroom read). 

Jonas Jonasson's protagonist grew up in a shanty town of South Africa. She empties latrines for a living ever since she was 5 years old. Although borne an illiterate, fated to destitution and later on die of tuberculosis, pneumonia, diarrhea, pills, alcohol (or the combination of these) like the rest of the kaffirs (as the blacks are called) she shares this menial task with, Nombeko Mayeki’s inherent genius offers her the position from being a mere latrine emptier into a managerial position. She soon managed to escape town and by some freak accident, becomes a cleaning lady to Engr. Westhuizen, the top representative of nuclear weapons of South Africa. Things got crazy along the way, of course with Nombeko always saving the idiot of an engineer’s ass. 

Another story follows the lives of the Holger twins and their father, Ingmar, a fanatic of the Swedish Monarchy who later turned into a detractor after the king refused to lay eyes or even speak to him (in one of his chases). Although one bears the spitting image of the other, they can’t be confused because Holger Two seems to be more sensible than Holger One (who took after his father’s anarchist teachings and penchant for ruinous decisions). However it is Holger One, who by manners of Swedish Registry, who truly existed. Later on in the story, Holger Two met Nombeko and later on fell in love with her. Their love affair did not take up the bulk of the book's pages but instead the little incidents that intertwined their lives with the most unlikely characters: The Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf, Prime Minister Frederik Reinfeldt, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Countess Virtanen, an American potter, 2 Israeli Mossads, some Chinese  swindlers and an angry young woman who shared the foolish Holger twin's beliefs. A "non-existent" atomic bomb was also involved.

Although this book wasn't nearly as exciting as his “The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of The Window and Disappeared” which I read in 2013 it held the author’s knack for piecing together a comical skit that renders a light hearted take on international politics.