As an extreme fan of Jonas Jonasson, I was thrilled to receive the ARC from NetGalley of his new book. If one expects Jonasson to be consistent in terms of how odd the characters are or how much geography you learn or what you learn about art, you could be disappointed BUT, I was not. This is a simple story of a town that lost its only factory and much of its population as a result. Stockholm is an hour’s drive and the town is on life support. The thing is, in an effort to save the tire factory, the town paid for serious upgrades that make it a potential attractive location for a German mattress company looking to get into the Swedish market.
The new mayor, a young woman named Julia recently out of a relationship and hoping to save the town begins to court the up and coming son of the mattress company owner. He will decide where to locate the factory and with his young twin daughters he will settle in Sweden to oversee the new location. Julia goes a bit nuts with her efforts to woo the company, involving a team including a ten year old boy, an elderly woman and an unemployed engineer. Opposing them is a greedy consultant to the government in Stockholm, very annoying character who pays little attention to his goals/work until he’s in crisis. As Julia’s town goes all out Gernanifying, it seems to be a threat to the consultant. He starts to play very dirty. He just doesn’t realize that Julia has no qualms about playing dirty back, but in ways we approve of because they are Jonasson’s people.
This little book is full of smiles. It is sweet and fairly predictable but such a nice ride that’s fine. Enjoy the town. Enjoy the competition. Enjoy the bad folks. Enjoy the District Council. All good. 4.5 stars rounded up because I wish it were a longer book because … Jonasson … however it is just the right length for this story.
They Called me Bookworm 