The Room Audiobook By Jonas Karlsson cover art

The Room

A Novel

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The Room

By: Jonas Karlsson
Narrated by: George Newbern
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“The daily grind got you down? Escape into this Swedish dark comedy about a scaldingly contemptuous office drone who discovers a secret room in his workplace.”—O: The Oprah Magazine
The inspiration for the upcoming feature film Corner Office, starring Jon Hamm

Björn 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 Björn 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. Björn’s bizarre behavior eventually leads his co-workers to try and have him fired, but Björn 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.

©2015 Jonas Karlsson (P)2015 Random House Audio Absurdist Anthologies & Short Stories Contemporary Fiction Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Satire Short Stories Comedy Funny

Critic reviews

“Swedish actor and playwright Karlsson’s short novel offers a monologue that builds from simple office satire to a reality-bending psychological profile with insights into the nature and importance of personal space.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Trendy Nordic noir meets faded office bureaucracy—with haunting effect.”—New York Post

“The Room, a modern, Bartleby-like examination of the tyranny of radical individualism, does mess with one's head, but in a most pleasurable way.”—BookPage
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From the perspective of a man who thinks he is superior and clever in every way, comes a story of how social cohesion breaks down when one man insists that reality is not as it appears.

Does the room exist? Well, that’s not really the question. This is a tale of society and how it’s members need to agree on what is real, fair, and normal. This story gives you a feeling of the distress when people cannot agree on a common reality. As confrontation and social consequences set in, this story is very reminiscent of Lord of the Flies.

Lord of the Flies in the Corporate world

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At least this one is short- I think I found one giggle in the whole thing- otherwise, it's irritating and silly.

Don't bother

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unsatisfying ending with such an interesting hook this book could've done so much more

I want to like this so bad

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