A Stockholm bedsit and a part-time job in a video rental shop hardly seem the stuff of dreams, until the unassuming hero of Jonas Karlsson’s latest novella is issued with a staggering invoice for his life to date. His debt has been calculated by the Orwellian World Resources Department according to his “Experienced Happiness” score, but when he rings the helpline to correct the error he inadvertently makes matters worse; as his contentment with his few possessions, shabby flat and dead-end job are revealed, WRD’s mysterious “calculations” multiply the amount owed to the point of absurdity, while also eliciting the sympathy of its surprisingly tender-hearted representative, Maud.
The Invoice is a gentle satire on materialism and spiralling global debt, and while Karlsson’s central conceit does not stand up to much scrutiny, his modern-day fable is nonetheless entertaining, thought-provoking and delivered with a good humour that makes it hard to resent its irrepressible hero.
The Invoice is published by Hogarth (£9.99). Click here to order a copy for £7.99
