I suffered through this book! (I know what you're thinking, "Why? Life is too short to read books you don't like! Yada yada . . . .") Well I finished it because I had to lead the discussion at book club. (Spoiler! I'm the only one who finished it! Everyone else quit.)
Allan Karlson climbs out the widow because he doesn't want to go to his 100th birthday party. He then manages to steal 50 thousand dollars and forms a group of unlikely friends (which includes an elephant.) They precede to run and hide from both a police detective and the criminal gang he stole from. Through mostly good luck Allan and company manage to evade their pursuers and stay about one lucky step ahead. That's the present day story line. Throughout the book you flash back through Allan's life. It's really rather remarkable: he travels the world, solves the problem of how to safely detonate an atomic bomb, affects world politics, becomes a spy, and spends 15 years sitting on the beach in Bali.
I make it sound interesting but in my opinion it was slow and a little dry. There is so much going on both politically and historically, I struggled to follow. If you want to read it good luck, but I'm giving one star.