''The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden'' is a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

novel written by

Jonas Jonasson Pär-Ola Jonas Jonasson (born Per Ola Jonasson; 6 July 1961) is a Swedish journalist and writer, best known as the author of the best-seller ''The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared''. Biography The son of an ambul ...

. The book was first published in 2013 as the second novel of the author, after the best-selling ''

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared ''The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared'' ( sv, Hundraåringen som klev ut genom fönstret och försvann), also known as ''The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared'' in the US, is a 2009 com ...

'', and translated into English by Rachel Willson-Broyles

Plot

In 1961, Nombeko Mayeki is born a poor black girl in Soweto. She leaves the slums and in a twist of fate – is run over but survives – this puts her into the employ of the engineer who ran her over, as a cleaner in South Africa's secret nuclear weapons facility. Here, her good head for mathematics leads her to cover for her drunken and incompetent employer. Two

Mossad Mossad ( , ), ; ar, الموساد, al-Mōsād, ; , short for ( he, המוסד למודיעין ולתפקידים מיוחדים, links=no), meaning 'Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations'. is the national intelligence agency ...

agents eventually murder her employer, but she outwits them and escapes to

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

with a trio of female Chinese con artists, but due to a mix-up, Nombeko ends up in possession of a missing South African atom bomb. In Sweden, she settles into a condemned building living in a bizarre commune including a pair of identical twins (both named Holger), the youngest of which and his girlfriend are die-hard

republicans Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

determined to end the Swedish monarchy. Nombeko and her Swedish boyfriend (the older Holger) are determined to hand the bomb over to the Swedish Prime Minister, but no-one will believe them. Years later, after several attempts to hand over the bomb have failed in absurd circumstances (including the remaining Mossad agent finding and nearly killing them), Holger and his girlfriend kidnap the King and the Prime Minister of Sweden on the spur of the moment from a gala banquet with Chinese President

Hu Jintao Hu Jintao (born 21 December 1942) is a Chinese politician who served as the 16–17th general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 2002 to 2012, the 6th president of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from 2003 to 2013, an ...

at the

Royal Palace in Stockholm Stockholm Palace or the Royal Palace ( sv, Stockholms slott or ) is the official residence and major royal palace of the Swedish monarch (King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia use Drottningholm Palace as their usual residence). Stockholm Pala ...

, and prepare to blow up the bomb (and everything within a 38-mile radius) in order to end the monarchy. Nombeko calms the situation down, saving the King's life, and her own.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden 2012 Swedish novels English-language novels Swedish-language novels Novels set in Stockholm Novels set in South Africa