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!

overall a disapointment

First, let's correct an omission - the book is narrated by Peter Kenny. He narrated a lot of books available on Audible, and his experience shows. The reading is fluent and nuanced. It is also totally inadequate for this book. Jonas Jonasson has a dry humor that is betrayed by the engrossing reading, which makes it sound like a sitcom. A pathetic misunderstanding and a huge letdown from the narration of the author's other book by Steven Crossley.
That being said, the book itself is not as good as The 100 Years Old Man...The story has some good parts, particularly the ones in Soweto, but otherwise it a lot duller and repetitive, even self-plagiarizing.
So, this audiobook is OK, but I came with high expectations after listening to the author's first book. Hopefully he will come back to his senses for the next book and the original narrator returns. I hear they made movies of both books, so I am up to see them (one available on Amazon Video already), just to see what they manage to do with some good literary material in that approach.

great but not my favorite one

I love all of Jonassons books but this one was hard to stay interested. the storyline was pretty good but I couldn't stay interested in the main character enough.

still would recommend!

What a great ride!

He's done it again! Mixing satire with the real world and such an elegant way do you have to laugh at ourselves

the art of improbability

i love Jonassons's book...
funny
witty
flowing
the charecters are deep, the story is funny

terrific listen!

Loved this book! I hated coming to the end! Jonsson always spins a great tale.

Hilarious & Historical

I loved the strings of history that tie this story together as well as the evolving dry humor throughout. Jonasson’s books are great fun!