It's not a heavyweight book by any means, but it was a nice way to while away a few cold evenings here in this goddamn THIRD pandemic winter. But then he realises that they have a lot in common, and so he embarks on a romantic relationship with her to complement their business relationship.

The three join forces and concoct an unusual business plan based on Hitman Anders’ skills and his fearsome reputation. Incorrectly billed as a comedy by a desperate PR department, Hitman Anders and the Meaning of It All is a dreary crime caper that thinks it’s clever by making the highly original observations that, 1) Christianity is a bit of a silly religion and 2) tabloid newspapers are trash. I started with The 100 Year Old Man, followed by Hitman Anders and finished with The Girl who Saved The King of Sweden.

In an ironic aside in Chapter 57, the narrator acknowledges this lack of plot progression when he comments, “In some sense, one could say that they [the two main characters] were back in the vicinity of Chapter 16 of this story,” but making a joke about this absence of forward progression doesn’t make it ok. When Anders gets Christianity, he says “Hosanna” a lot without knowing what it means – that’s the “comedy” by the way. I was expecting a farce and so didn’t have any issues with the ludicrousness of events, but I can imagine some readers may find the continued and escalating daftness annoying. I was really looking forward to this book since I absolutely loved The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, but this one was just meh. It’s easy and it’s been done people, move on or else have something original to say about it, which Jonasson doesn’t.

I don't know if it's the translation (which to me always sounds a bit condescending, like someone tried to make this Literature?

If only children could be free of all that crap previous generations had gathered up for them, he said, perhaps it would bring some clarity to their lives. Using the media's obsessive need for sensational, headline-making stories to advertise their talent's superb "skill," they quickly build a clientele of rich Swedish gangsters. With Anders no longer wanting to do his job and focussing his day on his new religion and drinking 'the body of Jesus', the receptionist and vicar will have to find a new way to get their money. Then his life takes an unexpected turn when he meets a female Protestant vicar (who also happens to be an atheist), and a homeless receptionist at a former brothel which is now a one-star hotel. It was one of my book club choices back in Spain and I enjoyed it more than everyone else who just thought it was odd.