The girl who saved the king of Sweden
By: Jonas Jonasson
Published: 2015
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9781445099842
Subjects: South Africans; Nuclear weapons; Twins; Kings and rulers; Fiction
Work titles: Analfabeten som kunde räkna
Description: On June 14th, 2007, the King and Prime Minister of Sweden went missing from a gala banquet at the Royal Castle. Later it was said that both had fallen ill: the truth is different. The real story starts much earlier, in 1961, with the birth of Nombeko Mayeki in a shack in Soweto. Nombeko was fated to grow up fast and die early in her poverty-stricken township, be it from drugs, from alcohol, or just from plain despair. But Nombeko takes a different path. She finds work as a housecleaner and eventually makes her way up to the position of chief advisor, at the helm of one of the world's most secret projects. Here is where the story merges with, then diverges from reality. South Africa developed six nuclear missiles in the 1980s, then voluntarily dismantled them in 1994. This is a story about the seventh missile - the one that was never supposed to have existed.
Notes: Translated from the Swedish.

Standard print edition originally published: London: Fourth Estate, 2014.