The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared

by Jonas Jonasson

Things are what they are, and whatever will be will be. That meant, among other things, that you didn’t make a fuss, especially when there was good reason to do so:

A tabloid journalist

‘Revenge is not a good thing,’ Allan warned him. ‘Revenge is like politics: one thing always leads to another until bad has become worse, and worse has become worst.’

Three hours later the two men were calling each other Harry and Allan, which goes to show what a couple of bottles of tequila can do for international relations.

The days passed.

The man on

Allan was not one to pin his hopes (or, for that matter, his fears) on what might happen in the immediate future. What happened happened. There was no point second-guessing it.

Life worked in such a way that right was not necessarily right, but rather what the person in charge said was right.

protection from rain over the vodka was not one of the necessities of life, especially if you were already lying under a parasol and the sun was shining from a clear blue sky.

It had been exciting, the entire journey, but nothing lasts forever, except possibly general stupidity.