The Girl Who Saved The King Of Sweden in Around the Year in 52 Books

Jul 16, 2017 Ron rated it liked it

Satire/farce in tradition of Voltaire's Candide centered around an intellectually gifted African girl (Nombeko) in Apartheid-South Africa, whose life takes on many different bizarre adventures, mostly around her accidental acquisition of an atomic bomb.

This book is a follow-up to The 100 Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, in which none of the same characters or exact situations are repeated, but the style is similar. The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden suffers by comparis ...more

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Mar 18, 2021 Cora rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, south-africa, africa, europe, sweden, brothers, siblings, dysfunctional-families, translation, twins

This is the story of a girl, Nombeko, who was born in Soweto, South Africa who worked her way out of the slums and eventually to a position where she was advising heads of state from a number of countries. The whole story was a bit absurd and reminded me of some of the Vonnegut novels I have read. The characters were a bit silly, but I really liked Nombeko. She was a smart woman who had a way of getting things done (eventually). I liked how the author wove real world historical events into the p ...more

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Dec 03, 2014 Kate rated it it was amazing

Shelves: drop-dead-favorites, gifts

Oh my stars, I loved every minute of this book. What a fun romp! Also, I want to sit down and have a drink (or four) with Nombeko. She might be up there as a new Fictional Heroine.

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