The Room

A Novel

By: Jonas Karlsson

Narrated by: George Newbern

“The daily grind got you down? Escape into this Swedish dark comedy about a scaldingly contemptuous office drone who discovers a secret room in his workplace.”—O: The Oprah Magazine

The inspiration for the upcoming feature film Corner Office, starring Jon Hamm

Björn is a compulsive, meticulous bureaucrat who discovers a secret room at the government office where he works—a secret room that no one else in his office will acknowledge. When Björn is in his room, what his co-workers see is him standing by the wall and staring off into space looking dazed, relaxed, and decidedly creepy. Björn’s bizarre behavior eventually leads his co-workers to try and have him fired, but Björn will turn the tables on them with help from his secret room.

Debut author Jonas Karlsson doesn’t leave a word out of place in this brilliant, bizarre, delightful take on how far we will go—in a world ruled by conformity—to live an individual and examined life.

Lord of the Flies in the Corporate world

From the perspective of a man who thinks he is superior and clever in every way, comes a story of how social cohesion breaks down when one man insists that reality is not as it appears.

Does the room exist? Well, that’s not really the question. This is a tale of society and how it’s members need to agree on what is real, fair, and normal. This story gives you a feeling of the distress when people cannot agree on a common reality. As confrontation and social consequences set in, this story is very reminiscent of Lord of the Flies.

Don't bother

At least this one is short- I think I found one giggle in the whole thing- otherwise, it's irritating and silly.

I want to like this so bad

unsatisfying ending with such an interesting hook this book could've done so much more