The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden

A Novel

By: Jonas Jonasson, Rachel Willson-Broyles

Narrated by: Peter Kenny

A picaresque tale of how one person's actions can have far-reaching—even global—consequences, from the author of the bestselling novel 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. Poor and orphaned, she quickly learns that the world expects her to die young. But Nombeko has grander plans. Little does this cunning and fearless girl know that soon she will steal a fortune in diamonds, outwit a mad scientist kidnapper, travel across the world, fall in with a pair of diabolical assassins, and ultimately save a king--and possibly the world.

Jonas Jonasson tackles issues ranging from the pervasiveness of racism to the dangers of absolute power in a charming and hilarious story. In the inimitable voice that has earned him legions of fans the world over, he gives us another rollicking tale of how even the smallest of decisions can ripple out into the world.

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.

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.

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.