Title: Sweet Sweet Revenge Ltd.
Author: Jonas Jonasson
Translated by: Rachel Willson-Broyles
Genre: Crime, Translated Fiction, Scandinavian Literature, Humor
Publication Date: Sept 1, 2020
Review Date: Apr 3, 2023
Number of Pages: 336 (paperback)
My Rating: 5/5
Buy here:
I adore books that span a variety of topics or ones that have an offbeat sense of humor. Sweet Sweet Revenge Ltd. by Jonas Jonasson has both, which is a joy to encounter..
Book Blurb:
The brand new, laugh-out-loud, around-the-world adventure from the bestselling author of The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared.
Victor Alderheim has a lot to answer for. Not only has he heartlessly tricked his young ex-wife, Jenny, out of her art gallery inheritance, but he has also abandoned his son, Kevin, to die in the middle of the Kenyan savanna.
It doesn’t occur to Victor that Kevin might be rescued and adopted by a Maasai medicine man, or that he might be expected to undergo the rituals expected of all new Maasai warriors – which have him running back to Stockholm as fast as you can say circumcision without anaesthetic.
Back in Stockholm, Kevin’s path crosses with Jenny’s – and they have an awful lot to talk about, not least a shared desire to get even with Victor. So it’s convenient when they run into a man selling revenge services, who has an ingenious idea involving Victor’s cellar, a goat, some forged paintings, four large boxes of sex toys, and a kilo of flour …
Book Review:
One of my goals this year (in addition to revamping this website) is to read more translated fiction. In this case, the book has been translated from Swedish. It’s always interesting to read books set in other places, especially places I’ve never been, like Sweden and Kenya.
This book was in the recommended section of my library. I picked it up purely on that basis, because my library has not failed me so far! Yet again, I love my librarians for their great recommendations, because this is a fantastic read!
I adore books that span a variety of topics or ones that have an offbeat sense of humor. Sweet Sweet Revenge Ltd. has both, which is a joy to encounter in a random pick.
This book heavily features art history, the Maasai Mara, the ridiculousness of bureaucracy, a jar of lingonberries, and how some people are just inherently terrible. And of course, the fantasy of perfect revenge.
I haven’t read a book like this in a long time. Indeed, I haven’t even finished a single book in a long time. I guess this is just what I needed to kick me out of my reading slump. Electricity is exciting. Swedish jail seems like a very comfortable form of punishment to a Maasai warrior. Things like these just kickstart your imagination, because it’s such a different perspective. That’s precisely why I wanted to read translated fiction in the first place.
The fact that I learnt so much about art history is a lovely bonus. I also really liked the humor being so often situational.
I’m very happy to have discovered a new author, and you can bet I’ll be reading his previous works and looking forward to new ones! This sets a nice tone for the rest of the year for sure, as it is the first book I finished this year! What a start. Hoping for more great fiction this year.
Recommended for:
Sweet Sweet Revenge Ltd. by Jonas Jonasson is for fans of art history, offbeat humor, translated fiction, Jonas Jonasson, learning new things and perspectives, revenge attempts!
