The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden

A Novel

By: Jonas Jonasson, Rachel Willson-Broyles - translator

Narrated by: Peter Kenny

Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

A wildly picaresque new novel from Jonas Jonasson, the author of the internationally best-selling The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared.

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 10, 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 15, 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. In this wild romp, Jonasson tackles issues ranging from the pervasiveness of racism to the dangers of absolute power, while telling a charming and hilarious story along the way. In the satirical voice that has earned him legions of fans the world over, Jonasson gives us another rollicking tale of how even the smallest of decisions can have sweeping - even global - consequences.

©2014 Jonas Jonasson (P)2014 HarperCollins Publishers

I you do not have anything good to read

The author has a good imagination, the book can be a little shorter> I get bored, and I have to stop reading, come back but I just can take it only for few minutes.

Not as good as the previous, but still good.

After experiencing this author's previous work-The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window And Disappeared-I really wanted to hear more from Jonas Jonasson. And I got it-but unfortunately, this book isn't quite as great as that one.

Don't get me wrong, the prose is still great and fun, and it's a good screwball comedy-but the thing is, in THYOM, most of what happened was not the direct result of the protagonist being a moron. But Nombeko, for as smart as the writer claims she is, gets handed the idiot ball so many times in this story. There are several places in this book where she somehow never considers that the group she's with contains her own worst enemy and leaves them unchecked, only to move the story forward. I hate when smart characters act stupid for no reason, so that hurts this story for me.

However, despite that one issue, I still enjoyed the book. Just not as much as I could have.

Perfect. Astounding. Marvelous

An absolutely perfect narration with many complex parts and accents. My current favorite author. I listen to his books twice all the way through because they are so compelling.

Smart fun!

Every character written fully and with sly delight. Unbelievable narrative that is truly believed and fits nicely with history.
Bravo!

A quirky, sweet, super fun novel

I listened to Jonasson's other book "The 100 year old..." and really enjoyed it so jumped on this one when it was released. I was not disappointed--this book was even better.

The themes of this story are:
1. do not underestimate people and
2. still waters run deep.

This book is filled with characters I loved because of their depth and because of how they surprise the reader (listener) and how they continually surprise the "bad" guys in the story.

Jonasson's style is outlandish, with action and scenarios that make you shake your head and chuckle. The suspension of disbelief is easy though because the characters are so lovable that I end up cheering for them no matter how nutty the situations and solutions are. His novels are just fun.

The narrator was great. He wrestled with a lot of accents and handled them very well.

Leaves your head spinning

Quirky, wise, fast-moving, and utterly engaging! The story moves at a pace that makes your head spin, but was so much fun that I had to keep listening. And the narrator is a master!

A fun read

Great fun to read especially if you are South African or know some of the apartheid era history.

Loved it

Funny, charming, exciting, hard to stop reading story. The narrator is amazing too! Can’t wait for more novels from Jonas Jonasson.

Rollicking fun

This story is like a narrative Rube Goldberg device — fun twists at every turn, with plenty of historical and political commentary built in. And the narrator did a great job with the many accents necessary.

Captivating story. Satisfying ending.

I've never read a book with so many twists, turns, and strokes of luck both good and bad. Interesting characters and many laugh out loud moments kept me interested. The ending was perfect.