IT’S NEVER TOO LATE TO START AGAIN. AND AGAIN.
Featuring one violent killer, two shrewd business brains and many crates of Moldovan red wine,Hitman Anders and the Meaning of it all is a madcap new novel from the one-of-a-kind author of The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared and The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden.
It’s always awkward when five thousand kronor goes missing. When it happens at a certain grotty hotel in south Stockholm, it’s particularly awkward because the money belongs to the hitman currently staying in room seven. Per Persson, the hotel receptionist, just wants to mind his own business, and preferably not get murdered. Johanna Kjellander, temporarily resident in room eight, is a priest without a vocation, and, as of last week, without a parish. But right now she has two things at her disposal: an envelope containing five thousand kronor, and an excellent idea . . .
Finished Copies Available
We have finished copies of Hitman Anders and the Meaning of It All to give away to the first ten booksellers in the UK & Ireland who get in touch. If you’d like a copy, please send your request along with your name and bookshop address, to Olivia at independentthinking@harpercollins.co.uk.
POS Available
We have a limited number of these brilliant double-sided A2 posters available for booksellers to order (ISBN: 9780007955824). Simply contact your local sales representative or email Olivia at independentthinking @harpercollins.co.uk.
4 Questions for Jonas Jonasson
What inspired you to write this novel?
There are infinite ways of describing just what Humans are capable of on this earth. Each one of them inspire me to weave stories full of misery and hope. Misery and hope, that is pretty much how I view mankind.
Hitman Anders is a very original creation … how did you come up with him?
As I said, misery and hope. That’s my hitman, right there. I collect life stories and characters in my everyday life. When the time comes to create somebody, for a story, I pick and choose from the library of characters I keep in my head.
One consistent element of your work is the way you use humour to make serious points about society. Is there ever a tension between the desire to entertain and the desire to express something more serious?
Absolutely! I take pleasure in writing. But the writing process is also a battle, to a certain extent, and that is the battle between humour and the underlying message. Too much of the humour and people will lose interest in me. Too much of the other and I become boring.
Do you see Hitman Anders as a continuation from your previous two novels, or is it something different for you?
“Same, same but different”? All of my novels, including the one I am writing now, describe travelling through life. Physically and humanly. But the journeys are very different from each other and they deal with the shortcomings of mankind from different perspectives
Jonas Jonasson was a journalist for the Expressen newspaper for many years. He became a media consultant and later set up a company producing sports and events for Swedish television, before selling his company and moving abroad to work on his first novel. He lives on the Swedish island Gotland in the Baltic Sea.
Hitman Anders
by Jonas Jonasson
21st April 2016
4th Estate
Paperback
9780008152079
RRP £8.99
