Book Review: The 100 Year Old Man who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared

This book follows two storylines and does it masterfully. The first story that the book follows is, as the title suggests, about a one hundred year old man who climbed out of his window and the resulting adventure. The second story of the book is the story of the his life and as the title says, once again, it has been a long one.

After escaping from the old person’s home that Allan was placed in because he blew up his house, he finds himself on a whirlwind adventure through the country of his birth, Sweden, due to his accidental theft of a briefcase holding fifty million in Swedish currency from a gang. Numerous adventures follow as the gang tries to catch up with Allan to get their money back. An odd array of characters are utilised for this story, as Allan’s current adventure gets wildly misconstrued by the police, wipes out a gang, helps others meet people they love, and heals bad family relationships.

The second story present in the book is split up into multiple parts and it starts with Allan’s childhood in Sweden. It is here that he picks up his skills with explosives as a young child while working for a local factory and it is this skill set that is the impetus for much of the story. It is this very skill set which is why he is asked to travel to his first destination in this story that is very similar to Forrest Gump. (Even the author agrees it is like Forrest Gump but instead he is an explosives expert and has no mental problems.) His story takes him all the way to Spain, the United States, China, the Himalayas, Iran, back to Sweden, the USSR, North Korea, Bali, France, the USSR again, and then back to Sweden which leads to the events of the first story.

Being a bit of a history freak I enjoyed the second story far more due to the amount of humor that was present in that story. Numerous important historical figures from the prior century are present in this tale and they are all used masterfully, in a very similar fashion to the ones in Forrest Gump, another great tale by the way.

If you have the time read this book.