Hitman Anders and the Meaning of it All - Jonas Jonasson

Despite the title, Hitman Anders and the Meaning of it All is not so much a philosophical crime novel as a gentle comic satire, one that doesn't just make fun of Swedish institutions and characteristics but wider subjects such as celebrity and religion.

It certainly finds a unique way to do this through the three main characters of Per Persson, the receptionist at a cheap hotel that was formerly place of ill-repute, through the priest without a parish; Johanna Kjellander, who no longer believes in God and attempts to offer him a half-hearted prayer in return for a few coins; and of course in Hitman Anders, whose notoriety has the potential to make them millions, as long as they can harness his, ahem, talents.

Unfortunately Hitman Anders, a resident at the hotel and not long out of prison after his last conviction, is not the reliable type. As far as a hitman goes, he's more of a heavy for hire when a few bones need to be broken. He has however let down the count and the countess, breaking a loan defaulter's arm in two places rather than break two arms (out of consideration for the child he was holding at the time), but the quick thinking receptionist and priest have a few ideas how they can make up for it. A newspaper interview puts the name of Hitman Anders out there and soon commissions are rolling in.

That plan inevitably runs its course, coming to an unexpected early end when Anders, to their great surprise, takes on religion. It's not your usual born again conversion, Anders putting his own interpretation on the word of God and the meaning of communion (which for Anders means drinking great quantities of wine). Some of these ideas are put into his head by the priest, for her own reasons, and to get a bit of peace from his continual questions. What they don't count on however is Anders giving away the hard-earned (actually not hard-earned at all) money they have made. The unscrupulous quick-thinking duo need to rework their plans and find a way of exploiting this modern day Robin Hood, which they do by setting up their own Hitman Anders religion.

To say that this is all quite amusing sounds like faint praise, but there is a gentle side to the underlying dark humour in Hitman Anders that goes raise a few smiles and laughs in the mild absurdity of the situations. Whether we get to the meaning of it all, perhaps not, but it's a book that is consistently funny and entertaining.

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