Title: The Invoice
Author: Jonas Karlsson
Publisher: Hogarth
Release Date: 7/12/16
Version Reviewed: digital ARC courtesy of NetGalley
Rating: ★★★★
If money can't buy happiness, how did he wind up with a bill for 5,700,000 kroner? It turns out everyone in the world has received an invoice in an effort to redistribute wealth from the happy in life to the unhappy. For those who have had a good life, it's time to balance the scales and pay up. It turns out the best things in life really aren't free after all.
But surely his invoice must be a mistake! What does he even have to be happy about? He works a part-time menial job with no prospects of improvement, rents a small apartment, owns nothing of value, has no wife or children and very few friends. How could his bill be so high? And what happens when he can't pay it? He decides to dispute the charge, but every encounter with the collection firm only makes matters worse. He's warned there's a debt ceiling, after which he will "no longer be allowed to have experiences"-- he's not sure what that entails and not eager to find out. He's confused, anxious, but able to strike up a friendship with the customer service agent who takes his calls, which provides a silver lining among storm clouds.
I enjoyed this short book. I liked the unnamed protagonist and identified with his frustration. One thing that struck me was that no one in the book questioned the *right* of some self-deputizing organization to charge them a bill, but rather quibbled over the amount. I don't know if that was for the purposes of the story, or if there are differences in the Scandinavian vs. American mindset. This is a book that makes you think, and does so in a fun and lighthearted way.
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