This was good book to read as it was from the heart as far as I could tell. Jonas used all his favorite things to write about to tell this story. He made it funny as he describes what these people went through to get the final contract signed. He takes Konrad Kaltenbacher Jr. and doesn't describe him as a loving person except for his girls. Jonas leaves this part of Konrad until the end. But Julia was a new mayor and made mistakes along the way that put her in troubled with the law. She used everybody to get what she wanted and the contract was signed even after she went to jail. We can ascribe this to Konrad's change in his behavior with Julia.

Quirky and fun. I initially had some concerns about, um, the ethics of it all, but those were (mostly) handled well by the end. So, overall, a really fun book.



Review copy provided by publisher.

Good sense of humor.
Funny.
There is also a deeper story within that draws you in and keeps your attention.
A pretty good read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Fourth Estate for this DRC and the chance to share my opinion, which is pretty positive! I have enjoyed two of the author’s previous works and was excited to see a new novel coming out! I think novel might be stretching it a tad though, as my copy came in at under 130 pages on my Kindle. That is merely a note though.

A new mayor takes over in a rural Swedish town, abandoned by industry and circling the drain. Suddenly, an opportunity for revitalization pops up on the radar, and within hours she has mobilized a ragtag team of conspirators from 9 to 99 (nearly!), and enters the contest to woo a substantial manufacturing business to breathe new life and economy into their town.

Let the madcap hilarity begin! Good guys vs bad guys in a race to win the contract. Is a moment of it plausible? No. Do you ponder how wonderful it would be if something like this could happen? Absolutely. This is escapism at its best, a sudden immersion in a chaotic but sweet all or nothing competition that unites a community. A great pick me up for when winter doesn’t seem to want to quit!

If you're looking for something silly to ease your burdens, Mayor Julia and her band of misfits is right up your alley! This completely ridiculous romp is zany and certifiable!

Jonas Jonasson in novella form — compact, chaotic, and completely irresistible.

If you know Jonasson, you know what you're signing up for: absurdist humor, improbable plot turns, and the kind of storytelling that feels like that one friend who always has an outrageous story that somehow might actually be true. All of that charm is packed into just 140 pages here, and honestly? He pulls it off beautifully.

The characters are a wonderfully mismatched ensemble — some utterly loveable, some decidedly not, all of them adding something essential to the story. A few are delightfully eccentric, a few gloriously sassy, and every single one earns their place on the page.

At its heart, this is a story about perseverance and refusing to give up — told with Jonasson's signature lightness and wit. I laughed out loud more than once, and closed the final page with a smile firmly in place.

Could it have been longer? Gladly. But it's perfectly formed as it is. A little gem for anyone in need of something fun, warm, and genuinely uplifting.

Our local book club read The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window years ago. I thought it was good, but was definitely not quite as taken with the book as most of the book club members. To each their own.

I thought I would give The Distinctly Competent District Councillor a try. NetGalley indicated that it was 144 pages or so; hey I can usually read (listen via text to voice) in a day or two.

It has been a while since I laughed out loud while reading/listening to a book!

"The man who's renting the swimming pool all of a sudden, and turning it into a beerhall. A German beerhall, if you can believe that." And the German bust/statue I thought was hilarious.

I found this book quite delightful. A little confusing with the chapters, as they switch between point of views (and it took me a bit to catch on).

I was honestly quite surprised to see that the average rating was under 4 stars for this book. I thought it was funny, usually I'm pretty "miss" when it comes to hit or miss with satires.

Many thanks to NetGalley, author Jonas Jonasson and publisher Harper 360 for approving my request to read the advance read copy of The Distinctly Competent District Councillor in exchange for an honest review. Publication expected May 2026.

The newly-elected mayor and chief councillor of the decaying town of Halstaholm, Julia Bäck, will do anything to restore prosperity to the town where, since the tire factory closed, nearly half the population has moved away, most to Stockholm. Meanwhile, in Hamburg, Konrad Kaltenbacher, Jr., CEO-to-be of Germany’s leading bedmaker, Traumbett, proposes to open a factory in Sweden to expand the company’s market into Scandinavia.

When Julia reads the news about Traumbett, she’s electrified. Sure, the obvious location for Traumbett is Stockholm, but Halstaholm isn’t that far away, and it has a huge and up-to-date factory building abandoned almost immediately after being built, when the tire company went out of business. So, what to do? Julia recruits a ragtag group for a task force, including a 10-year-old boy who speaks fluent German, among other useful souls, and gets to work. First, she pretends to be from the US State Department just to get Konrad’s secretary to put him on the phone. But that’s the least of her indiscretions. She’ll bend every municipal rule in the book to make Halstaholm attractive to Konrad.

But aside from pesky rules, Julia has other, more formidable opponents. First, there is the local curmudgeon on the council, who has always opposed Julia and has to be gotten around somehow, even by trickery if necessary. Worse yet is the sleazy, drunk, womanizer Stockholm consultant who has a big fat fee awaiting him when Traumbett signs a contract to go to Stockholm. No country bumpkin mayor is going to stand in his way.

With its heroes and villains quickly and neatly drawn, we’re off on a wild, laugh-out-loud, and charming caper. It’s a feel-good novella that should elevate the mood of any reader. I’d love to see it as a movie, too. It would be a bit like the classic Local Hero.