'The Hundred Year Old Man...' by Jonas Jonasson Quiz

Answer: To avoid going to his own birthday party

On the day of his 100th birthday and with less than one hour to go to his birthday party, Allan Karlsson decides that he doesn't want to attend the party. So, with creaking knees, he climbs out of the window of his room at the Old People's Home in Malmkoping and heads off, still wearing his slippers.

So begins a tale of adventure which takes Allan across Sweden, introduces him to new friends and makes him realize that just because he is one hundred years old, life does not have to come to a standstill. The novel includes flashbacks over Allan's life and explains how he arrived to live out the rest of his life at the Old People's Home.

Answer: Never Again

At Malmkoping bus station, Allan boards a bus taking with him a suitcase that he had been minding for a young man wearing a denim jacket with Never Again emblazoned on the back. Never Again, although officially described as a motorcycle club, is, in reality, a hapless criminal gang of four led by Per-Gunnar Gerdin, known to his cohorts as "The Boss".

The gang was formed while its members were in prison and the name reflects Gerdin's vision that never again would they be sent to jail. The rest of the gang consists of two henchmen named Bucket and Bolt and a Venezuelan called Caracas.

The gang's inept attempts to retrieve the suitcase as they follow Allan around the country provide some of the funniest moments in the book.

Answer: Julius Jonsson

Julius Jonsson, a relatively young man in his seventies, has been living a solitary life in the abandoned station house at Byringe when he first encounters Allan. A failed business man and sometime fraudster, Julius now lives on state handouts, some small time poaching and the proceeds of the illicit sale of his home brewed alcohol, none of which endears him to his neighbours. Allan and Julius hit it off immediately and are enjoying a vodka fuelled supper when the young man from whom Allan had taken the suitcase comes calling to retrieve it. Allan and Julius overpower the young man and lock him in a walk in freezer while they open the suitcase in which they find cash to the value of thirty-seven point five million crowns.

More alcohol flows and Allan and Julius wake the following morning to find that they have inadvertently frozen the young man to death.

They decide that a hasty departure from the scene of the crime is in order and, together with the corpse, set off down the disused railway line on an inspection trolley.

Answer: Hot dog vendor

Benny is the owner of an unsuccessful hot dog stand who Allan and Julius encounter as they flee the scene of the inadvertent death of the Never Again member. A veritable spring chicken at around fifty years of age, Benny is also the proud owner of a silver 1988 Mercedes.

This vehicle offers an ideal solution to Allan and Julius's transport problems and they purchase both the vehicle and Benny's services as a driver for the princely sum of 100 000 crowns. Benny is currently disenchanted with the tedium of life running a failing hot dog stand in a small town.

He is thus only too happy to grasp the opportunity to earn what he sees as both easy money and a way out of his current dead-end life. So Benny climbs behind the wheel and joins the band of travellers.

Answer: An elephant

Sonya is an elephant who lives with The Beauty, the owner of the farm on which Allan and his travelling companions take refuge. Sonya wandered off from the local circus in search of water and ended up at the local lake. So she swam across it to the other side.

The circus people and the local police believed her drowned and, not wanting the trouble of a dead elephant, quickly declared her dead. The Beauty found Sonya in the farm's orchard stealing apples and took her in. When Allan arrives at the farm Sonya takes a shine to him and happily performs her repertoire of tricks for him which include sitting on command.

This proves to be very helpful in a tricky situation where Sonya sits on a Never Again member who is trying to shoot Allan and his companions.

Answer: Harry S Truman

In this episode of his life, Allan is working as a waiter for the scientists of the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos. Allan has an extensive knowledge of explosives and, one day while he is pouring coffee for Robert Oppenheimer, he quite accidentally reveals the solution to the problem that has been stalling the project.

It also happens that this is the same day that Vice President Harry S Truman pays a visit to the project. On hearing of Allan's contribution to the project, Mr Truman invites Allan to have dinner with him at his favourite Mexican restaurant.

It is during this dinner which includes the sharing of two bottles of tequila that the Vice President receives the news that President Roosevelt has died and that he is now President of the United States.

Answer: Mao-Tse-tung

In this episode of his life, at the request of his old friend, Harry Truman, Allan accompanies Soong May-ling, the wife of Chiang Kai-shek, to China. He is supposed to teach her troops how to blow up bridges to try and halt the forward march of the communists led by Mao Tse-tung.

The more he sees of Soong May-ling and her cronies, the more disenchanted he becomes with the tactics they are employing. While on a riverboat, Allan uncovers a plot by them to rape and kill Jiang Qing, the third wife of Mao Tse-tung who is being held captive on board. With the help of Ah-Ming, the ship's mess boy, Allan rescues Jiang Qing from the hands of her captors earning the everlasting gratitude of Mao.

Answer: Albert Einstein

Herbert Einstein is the younger brother of the more well know Albert and, suffice it to say, he does not possess the same mental acumen as his older brother. Herbert himself quite openly admits that he has never had "a single wise thought". Poor old Herbert is a victim of mistaken identity as he is mistaken for his brother by the agents of Marshall Beria of the Soviet Union, kidnapped and whisked off to Moscow. When Marshall Beria realizes his mistake, Herman becomes an inconvenience and is shipped off to a gulag in Vladivostok.

On the train, he meets Alan who has been afforded the same fate after declining to build an atom bomb for Josef Stalin. Through the trials and tribulations of their imprisonment and subsequent escape, the two men become lifelong friends.

Answer: Amanda

Allan and Herbert meet Amanda, a cocktail waitress, while on holiday in Indonesia. Amanda's real name is Ni Wayan Laksmi and is known to be "about as intelligent as a kodok, a Balinese frog". Very shy, she is drawn into conversation with the two men when she keeps mixing up their drinks orders.

She and Herbert take a shine to each other and eventually marry. On their wedding day Ni Wayan Laksmi becomes Amanda as her new husband admits that he finds her name too difficult to remember. Herbert opens a driving school while Amanda decides to enter politics.

This eventually leads to her being appointed Indonesia's ambassador to France. With this begins another exciting chapter in Allan's life as he accompanies them to Paris.

Answer: Things are what they are and what will be, will be

It is quite ironic in the book that Allan becomes involved in so many major world events as he has spent most of his life avoiding both politics and religion, believing them to be the cause of misery and strife. During all his dealings with various world leaders from all ends of the political spectrum, he never commits to any ideology or religious persuasion. His reasoning on religion is that if you couldn't know for sure, then what was the point in going around guessing. He also believes that politics are not only unnecessary, but unnecessarily complicated.

He sums up his view on life by stating that "things are what they are and what will be, will be".