# The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden

By Jonas Jonasson

Profile: https://hahafiction.com/books/the-girl-who-saved-the-king-of-sweden-5044d24c/

Nombeko Mayeki has a gift for numbers and few prospects in apartheid-era Soweto. Her escape to Sweden leaves her caught up in a nuclear mix-up, with a secret service pursuing her and the Swedish king’s safety in her hands.

## What makes it funny?

Nombeko has little patience for officials who assume she is stupid. In the opening, she corrects the man who keeps getting her age wrong and answers his complaint about the latrine smell with a blunt explanation of what latrines contain. Readers in book groups also praise the story and characters, recommending it as a change of pace after heavier books.

### The comedy at work

Jonasson builds elaborate trouble out of missing paperwork: a twin whose birth was never registered and a bomb nobody officially built. The people with authority keep making mistakes that the supposedly insignificant Nombeko must handle.

### Try this if…

For readers who enjoy a capable underdog caught in escalating international farce. Book-group recommendations pair it with Jonasson’s The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared.

### Good to know

The opening includes racist language and apartheid oppression, along with addiction, bereavement and bodily-waste jokes. The dry delivery can be very casual about suffering.

## What to expect

- Genre: Adventure · Contemporary & literary
- Kind of humor: Absurdism · Dry wit · Farce
- The atmosphere: Irreverent
- Format: Novel
- Length: 432 pages
- Audiobook: 11 hr 53 min
- Published: 2013

## A few distinguishing details

- A mathematically gifted cleaner in a nuclear predicament
- A twin and a bomb that officially do not exist

## Sources & further reading

- Publisher: [The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden — Blackstone Library](https://www.blackstonelibrary.com/the-girl-who-saved-the-king-of-sweden)
- Publisher: [The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden — HarperReach](https://www.harperreach.com/products/the-girl-who-saved-the-king-of-sweden-jonas-jonasson-9780007557905)
- Review: [Kirkus review: The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jonas-jonasson/girl-who-saved-king-of-sweden)
- Reader discussion: [Reader discussion: The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden](https://facebook.com/groups/bookrecommendations/permalink/6272138216194272)
- Publisher: [Fourth Estate: The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden](https://www.harperreach.com/products/the-girl-who-saved-the-king-of-sweden-jonas-jonasson-9780007557905)
- Reading sample: [Opening extract: The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden](https://www.lovereading.co.uk/extract/10980/The-Girl-Who-Saved-the-King-of-Sweden-by-Jonas-Jonasson.html)