Maybe that’s the satirical element – is Jonas Jonasson saying that Swedish gangsters get away with blatant crimes?

Nu har jag läst ”Mördar-Anders och hans vänner (samt en och annan ovän)” och den får en trea i betyg från mig. At the centre of it all is a love story between the priest and the receptionist but this often takes second place to Hitman Ander rebirth as a kind of modern day Robin Hood. I found myself thinking about Andrey Kurkov’s novels about how fucked up life in Ukraine is, and Ryu Murakami’s books In the Miso Soup and Audition, and wishing that Hitman Anders was on a par. Same quirky humour that leads down to all interesting paths of unexpected avenues of a absurd story that is so absorbing. Contemporary light reading is so often based in one of a handful of genres, and Nombeko’s zany, farcical adventures were an enjoyable exception just as Allan Karlsson’s had been in The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared.I felt no connection whatsoever for the characters and the only reason I was able to finish this book is because I skim-read the last 40% of the book. It has some very funny moments and how it plays with significant events of 20th century history is great. But then he realises that they have a lot in common, and so he embarks on a romantic relationship with her to complement their business relationship. Recently it was all “we have to have ‘girl’ or ‘woman’ in the title”, and then there are these weird long titles if your book is quirky and comedic in any way. The authorial voice mysteriously backing Per and Johanna, regardless of their actions, kept me on side to an extent, but this sort of beach read novel needs a touch more outright likeability; the second, more nefarious scheme is short on that: After a business strategy based on the assault of people who were, in the best case, not entirely innocent, the priest and the receptionist had steered onto the new track of swindling money out of those whose hearts were full of faith, hope, love and generosity, and whose circulatory systems, just to be safe, had been filled with wine.

If you get the chance, even if you get a copy from the library, I do recommend The 100 Year Old Man. This story plot literally can be described as "A GANGSTER, A VICAR AND A RECEPTIONIST WALK INTO A BAR" and you get a funny read about an atheist female Protestant vicar, a hitman who has be released from prison and plans to keep "clean" and receptionist at a 1-star hotel (who happens to be currently homeless). You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.Together they cook up an idea for an enterprising venture involving Swedish gangsters that is set to make them all a fortune--until, all of a sudden and to everyone's surprise, Anders finds Jesus. In the hands of a less skilled author something like this could so easily fall flat but Jonasson manages to create a real sense of dangers, particularly with the Count and Countess, the type of couple who never get invited to dinner parties. Không nhớ rõ nữa, xin lỗi) vì "meaning of it all" rất liên quan tới phần cuối câu chuyện và thông điệp của cả cuốn sách! For certain values of fine that I was likely to notice, not having a detailed knowledge of the place behind the news: black South African readers may disagree. I was expecting a farce and so didn't have any issues with the ludicrousness of events, but I can imagine some readers may find the continued and escalating daftness annoying.