Photo/Illutration Jonas Jonasson (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

"The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared," a 2009 comic novel by Swedish author Jonas Jonasson, has been translated into 45 languages.

Set in Sweden, the protagonist, Allan Karlsson, is a centenarian who is bored with life in his retirement home. The plot unfolds with flashbacks of his many adventures in his younger days.

Allan's expertise lay in making vodka from goat's milk and assembling advanced explosives, which he exploited to associate closely with world leaders.

For instance, he was tasked by U.S. President Harry S. Truman to blow up a railway bridge in China. And in Britain, Allan saved Winston Churchill from a lethal bombing attack.

The entire story is liberally spiked with satire.

I interviewed Jonasson, 58, when he visited Japan last year. He recalled submitting his manuscript to five publishers in vain. Discouraged, he almost gave up hope of debuting as a novelist, until a sixth publisher showed interest, and the rest is history. The book has sold 16 million copies.

A former newspaper reporter and broadcast journalist with more than 20 years' experience, Jonasson was an inveterate workaholic, by his own admission, until he switched to writing in his mid-40s.

Portly in appearance and jovially forthcoming when being interviewed, his fame as a best-selling author has not changed his open and friendly personality at all.

In "Accidental Further Adventures of the Hundred-Year-Old Man," a sequel published in 2018, Allan is kept on his toes by present-day world leaders.

On a golf course, Allan bluntly asks U.S. President Donald Trump why he keeps telling outright lies. And he crosses words with Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Upon completing his adventures, Allan laments that the global current is going downhill.

Jonasson's novels are nothing more than light entertainment, but they are being devoured around the world, and I wondered why.

One likely reason is that we have too many politicians today who put their own countries' interests and their personal greed ahead of everything else.

And Allan's every adventure makes us feel good.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Jan. 28

*  *  *

Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.