Allan Karlsson is back, having escaped his nursing home in the internationally best-selling The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared. Now he and buddy Julius, up in a hot air balloon with three bottles of champagne, crash-land into the sea and are saved by a North Korean ship carrying contraband uranium. With a 100,000-copy paperback and 30,000-copy hardcover first printing.

This second installment of the madcap adventures of centenarian Allan Karlsson, former explosives expert, and his younger petty-thief sidekick, Julius Jonsson, will be happy familiar territory to fans of Jonasson's worldwide blockbuster The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared. This time, Allan and Julius decide to blow the last of their ill-gotten gains by taking a hot-air balloon ride to celebrate Allan's 101st birthday. The balloon malfunctions, and they end up in the ocean, rescued by a North Korean naval ship on a mission involving smuggled enriched uranium. Thus triggers a rolling snowball of international crises of epic proportions. World leaders fear for their sanity after their dealings with Allan and Julius, whose wiles and financial precipices involve Nazis, custom-painted coffins, handwritten notes scribbled on restaurant napkins that Angela Merkel must take seriously, hungry lions and hyenas feasting on human flesh, and a charlatan faith healer in Africa. VERDICT Jonasson creates the near impossible with his astute assessments of today's unstable global political climate and endearingly sweet characters, providing laugh-out-loud moments in a dark time. Reminiscent of Alexander McCall Smith's The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency with a side order of Forrest Gump, this should inspire renewed interest in Jonasson's first Allan Karlsson book. May Allan live longer and prosper. [See Prepub Alert, 7/9/18.]—Beth Andersen, formerly with Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI

Jonasson continues the globetrotting adventures of centenarian Allan Karlsson and his sidekick, petty thief Julius Jonasson, in this uproarious sequel to The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared. Lounging in Indonesia with the briefcase full of cash they procured in the previous book, Allan and Julius have it made. They sip drinks on the beach, take visits from Harry Belafonte, and play around with smartphones while lazing in the sun. Allan finds himself becoming more interested in world politics as he reads the news, and when the money finally runs out, he concocts another outlandish plan: to travel around the world in a hot air balloon. When the balloon crashes and the pair are rescued by a North Korean ship, their travels take them from North Korea, to America, Sweden, and eventually Tanzania as Allan and Julius try unload a suitcase filled with enriched uranium they find onboard the ship. But, as they meet world leaders—including Kim Jong-un, Angela Merkel, and Donald Trump—they discover their options are quite limited. Jonasson's clever prose, madcap delights, and satirical political commentary will please fans of the original novel and newcomers alike. (Jan.)