-
Access Our
Most Anticipated
Books of 2025!
Summary | Excerpt | Reading Guide | Reviews | Beyond the book | Read-Alikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio
Book Reviewed by:Funny, clever, surreal, and thought-provoking, this Kafkaesque masterpiece introduces the unforgettable Bjorn, an exceptionally meticulous office worker striving to live life on his own terms.
Bjorn is a compulsive, meticulous bureaucrat who discovers a secret room at the government office where he works - a secret room that no one else in his office will acknowledge. When Bjorn is in his room, what his co-workers see is him standing by the wall and staring off into space looking dazed, relaxed, and decidedly creepy. Bjorn's bizarre behavior eventually leads his co-workers to try and have him fired, but Bjorn will turn the tables on them with help from his secret room.
Debut author Jonas Karlsson doesn't leave a word out of place in this brilliant, bizarre, delightful take on how far we will go--in a world ruled by conformity - to live an individual and examined life.
A distinct sense of humor and playfulness underlies the plot but doesn’t sacrifice the novel’s depth. Swedish playwright (and now novelist) Jonas Karlsson has delivered a delightfully eerie debut that will keep a smile on your face as you burn through the pages...continued
Full Review
(685 words)
This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access,
become a member today.
(Reviewed by Elena Spagnolie).
People today seem to spend more time at work than ever before. So why is it that once we've gotten home, kicked off our uncomfortable shoes and loosened our ties, we relax by watching The Office, Mad Men, or cult classic Office Space, read books like Jonas Karlsson's The Room or even comics such as Dilbert?
Perhaps it's because we can relate to the inane antics of the average office, and because the use of satire is therapeutic. Maybe it makes us feel better to watch fictional characters say or do things that could get us fired. Or possibly - as this article in The Guardian suggests - it's because "anywhere is more interesting than your office, even if it's just someone else's office." Whatever the reason, fiction set in the workplace ...
This "beyond the book" feature is available to non-members for a limited time. Join today for full access.
If you liked The Room, try these:
by Hanna Bervoets
Published 2023
For readers of Leila Slimani's The Perfect Nanny or Ling Ma's Severance: a tight, propulsive, chilling novel by a rising international star about a group of young colleagues working as social media content monitors - reviewers of violent or illegal videos for an unnamed megacorporation - who convince themselves they're in control...until the ...
by Tom Rachman
Published 2011
Set against the gorgeous backdrop of Rome, Tom Rachman’s wry, vibrant debut follows the topsy-turvy private lives of the reporters, editors, and executives of an international English language newspaper as they struggle to keep it—and themselves—afloat.
On the whole, human beings want to be good, but not too good and not quite all the time
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Neel Mukherjee, author of The Lives of Others
A gripping, tense, demonic fable in which the unease is precision-tooled and the turns of the screw wholly unexpected.
