The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared

Julius Jonsson is a self-aware 70-year-old petty thief who makes no bones about being a pariah in a rural Swedish county where all the other residents know and distrust him. He immediately welcomes Allan into his home, and the two share their backstories in complete candor. Like Allan, Julius is creative and pragmatic, and he has skills that come in handy during their frequent extralegal activities. Next to Allan, Julius is the oldest person in the narrative until the group reaches Bali. His late-life goal is to find a place of comfort and acceptance.

Benny Ljungberg is a handsome, 50-ish Swede who has spent most of his adult years becoming an “almost expert” in various subjects, including medicine (human and veterinary), architecture, history, art, and welding. Because of a dispute with his brother, Bosse, Benny concocted a plan to allow him to live off his uncle’s bequest if he remained in school without ever successfully receiving a diploma. When the inheritance money ran out, Benny resorted to running a hotdog stand in a commercial area, where he encounters Allan and Julius. Benny instantly finds The Beauty attractive. She reciprocates, and their love affair commences within three days of meeting each other. Benny is the only adult in the narrative who doesn’t drink alcohol.

Gunilla “The Beauty” Björklund lives on Lake Farm, an acreage she inherited from her parents. The accompanying bequest enabled her to live frugally. Simply referred to as “The Beauty” throughout the narrative, Gunilla is in her early 40s, curvaceous, red-headed, and attractive. She has two pets: an Alsatian dog, Buster, and an escaped circus elephant, Sonya. The Beauty is an extremely earthy person and is easily the most foul-mouthed character. However, she’s also the most morally high-minded of Allan’s group, constantly reminding others of proper, ethical behavior. When she agrees to relocate with the group to escape detection and investigation, she insists on taking her dog and her elephant.

Per-Gunnar “Pike” Gerdin is an insignificant criminal who formed a gang of four individuals called “Never Again,” made up of men he met in prison. His followers obey him implicitly, though without much intellectual ability. Pike and the Never Again gang’s pursuit of Allan begins when Allan assumes charge of a suitcase containing 50 million Swedish crowns, about $5 million US. By the end of the narrative, Pike is the sole surviving member of his gang. Allan’s associates save his life, and Pike becomes one of their group.

Bosse Baddy Ljungberg, Benny’s estranged older brother, is a former associate of Pike’s who remained on good terms with him. Benny maneuvered his brother out of their uncle’s inheritance for decades. When Allan’s group needs a place to hide, Benny contacts Bosse at his rural estate, Bellringer Farm, and offers to repay him 3 million crowns. When Bosse tries to guess the one corrupt verse in a misprinted Bible, he reads the entire book and becomes religiously inspired.

Bengt “Bolt” Bylund is the first member of the Never Again gang to encounter Allan. Bolt demands that the old man watch over a suitcase too large for Bolt to take into the restroom. When Allan’s bus leaves, he takes the suitcase with him, causing Bolt to terrorize several people to find Allan. Jonasson repeatedly describes him as a scruffy “thug” wearing a jacket with “Never Again” sewn on the back. Bolt is the first of the gang to perish, and his body eventually ends up 3,500 miles from Sweden in the Suez Canal.

Henrik “Bucket” Hultén is the second member of the Never Again gang to perish. Once a small-time gang leader in his own right, he called his gang “Violence,” a name that his girlfriend misspelled as “Violins” when she sewed it on the backs of gang members’ jackets. Bucket tracks down Allan’s associates to The Beauty’s farm, where he meets his end. Ironically, Bucket’s younger brother steals Bucket’s car at a gas station, not knowing that Bucket’s body is under the back seat. Eventually, an auto crusher in Latvia discovers the body inside the crushed car.

Chief Inspector Göran Aronsson is the hapless detective who eventually locates Allan’s group at Benny’s farm. Aronsson is a person of real integrity who retains his objectivity as his search for Allan morphs into a serial murder investigation. Throughout the novel, Aronsson becomes increasingly disgusted with the media, the prejudiced public, and the state prosecutor. Encountering Allan and his group for the first time, he quickly becomes their legal advisor. When the group flies to Bali, Aronsson retires from his police work and travels with them, becoming the last member of Allan’s entourage.

Prosecutor Conny Ranelid is an ambitious civil servant who yearns to make a name for himself as a brilliant attorney. Ranelid tends to jump to conclusions and impulsively misinform the media based on his assumptions rather than on the facts of the case. To save face, Ranelid blames others for his impulsivity, as when he blames a police dog for incorrectly scenting a dead body’s previous presence on a train trolley.