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

After escaping the nursing home, Allan rests on a bench facing a church cemetery. Seeing a monument to a man who was born in 1905, the same year he was born, Allan feels grateful to be alive. Jonasson writes, “[I]t had to be much more interesting and instructive to be on the run from Director Alice than to be lying rigid six feet under” (4). He realizes that he’s beginning an adventure.

Allan makes his way to the Malmköping bus station and asks the ticket seller how far he get with the scant money he has. A rough-looking young man named Bolt needs to use the restroom but holds a locked suitcase too large to fit in with him. He demands that Allan watch the suitcase, though Allan tells him he’s boarding a bus in three minutes. When the stranger doesn’t come out of the restroom in time, Allan boards the bus, taking the suitcase with him. In the instant that Director Alice realizes Allan is not at the nursing home, the youth realizes Allan left with the suitcase and utters, “You’re a dead man, you old b******. Once I’ve found you” (9).

The mayor takes charge of the search for Allan, sending search teams to different locations, including the liquor store. The mayor asks the searchers to keep quiet about what they’re doing, though Jonasson points out that reporters make up one of the search teams.

Kicking open the ticket office door, Bolt threatens the ticket seller, who reveals that Allan’s ticket will take him to the rural stop of Byringe Station. Bolt decides to wait for the bus and make the driver take him to Allan’s stop.

At the shabby bus station, Allan meets 70-year-old Julius Jonsson, who lives in the decrepit station. Allan tells the story of his escape and how he stole the suitcase. Having lived an isolated life for years, Julius welcomes Allan into the station to rest. Jonasson reveals that Julius’s checkered past makes him a pariah to locals. While they share their personal stories over supper, Bolt heaps threats and abuse upon the bus driver to force him to drive back to Byringe Station. Sneaking into the station, Bolt grabs Julius by the ears and shakes him, unaware that Allan is behind him with a wooden plank. Allan knocks Bolt unconscious. Julius and Allan decide to see what’s in the suitcase. First, however, they lock Bolt in a meat freezer that isn’t running.

Jonasson begins a second, historical narrative in this chapter. He tells of Allan’s birth on May 2, 1905, in Yxhult, Sweden. Jonasson describes Allan’s father as an idealistic man who is angry and impulsive, especially when drinking. After the railway fires him for striking a passenger, his father travels to Russia to help remove the czar. Allan’s mother supports herself and Allan by turning their fir grove into firewood. Although Allan’s father seldom sends money from Russia, on one occasion he sends a Fabergé egg he won in a card game. Unaware of the egg’s value, Allan’s mother sells it for a pittance to a dishonest merchant named Gustavsson. Bolshevik soldiers shoot Allan’s father when he tries to defend his ownership of a tiny strawberry patch.

Having dropped out of school after third grade, 10-year-old Allan goes to work in a dynamite factory and becomes an explosive expert. Allan’s mother develops breathing problems and, when Allan is 15, she dies. Allan increases his expertise, learning to make his own dynamite and detonate it in the gravel pit behind his house. Gustavsson, who bought an expensive automobile with the proceeds from the Fabergé egg, loses control while driving and ends up in the gravel pit as Allan experiments with dynamite. The explosion blows the car and driver to bits.

As a result of the accident, Allan must live in a psychiatric hospital for four years. The chief psychiatrist, Dr. Lundborg, seeks to cure Allan by sterilizing him. In addition, the doctor continually quizzes Allan about his racial heritage, trying to ascertain if he has “Negro” or Jewish ancestors. Allan is released when he’s 19.

When the mayor’s search teams can’t find Allan, the local police are summoned. Inspector Aronsson questions everyone at the Old Folks’ Home. A police dog leads investigators to the bus station, which is closed for the night. Aronsson goes to the home of the ticket seller who, having been threatened by Bolt, pretends he’s not at home. One of the passengers on the bus saw Allan get off at the Byringe Station and phones in the tip. Aronsson receives the information by fax.

Allan and Julius discover that the suitcase contains bundled 500-crown notes that they later discover add up to about $5 million. As they examine the money, Bolt shouts to be released from the freezer. To quiet him, Allan turns on the freezer.

The following morning, Julius makes breakfast for Allan and informs him that they forgot to turn off the freezer, so Bolt is dead. Jonasson writes:

With a worried look, Allan scratched his neck while he decided whether to let the news of this carelessness spoil the day. Oh dear, he said. But I must say you've got these eggs just right, not too hard and not too runny (43).

Aronsson interviews the ticket seller and the bus driver. He learns that Allan got off the bus at the Byringe Station, holding a suitcase that belonged to a member of the Never Again gang. Aronsson shares the information with other authorities.

Julius and Allan decide to split the money in the suitcase evenly. They realize that the police will be looking for them and that they must leave Byringe Station and get rid of Bolt’s frozen body. They depart from on a trolley, pumping their way down the railroad tracks. Aronsson arrives three minutes after they leave. He finds Allan’s slippers, which Allan exchanged for Bolt’s shoes, and knows Allan has been there. Interviewing residents about Julius, the inspector learns that he’s a poorly regarded petty thief. A tip from a farmer indicates that three men who looked like Allan, Julius, and Bolt were seen riding a railroad trolley toward the Åker foundry.

Jonasson introduces Per-Gunnar “Pike” Gerdin, the leader of the Never Again gang, who insists that his henchmen call him “Boss.” A massive individual, 6’ 6” and about 500 pounds, Pike started as an unscrupulous businessperson before becoming a strong-arm thief. The $5 million in the suitcase is the gang’s biggest score, coming from selling South American narcotics to Russian drug dealers. When Bolt and the suitcase go missing, Pike sends another henchman, Bucket, to Malmköping to find them.

Allan and Julius pump the trolley to a steel works plant, where they put Bolt’s body in a steel container. The container is about to be shipped to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The two men walk to a gas station, and Julius speaks to the owner of a hotdog stand, Benny Ljungberg, whom he persuades to abandon his business and give them a ride in his silver Mercedes. They have no idea where to go and just head south.

Aronsson arrives 10 minutes after the men leave. Witnesses saw the two older men walking along the road, pulling a suitcase, but no one knows where they went. Aronsson returns to Malmköping, where the police chief holds a press conference and announces that underworld operatives have kidnapped Allan. Aronsson receives a tip that someone saw Allan and Julius riding in a silver Mercedes driven by a man with a ponytail, but the inspector discounts it.

Allan and Julius let it slip that they have 50 million crowns in the suitcase and have no further plans of any kind. While discussing the best way to avoid detection, they drive down a gravel road to the farmhouse of voluptuous, 40-year-old redhead Gunilla Björklund, whom Benny quickly nicknames The Beauty. She agrees to let them spend the night at her farm.