Robban

Robban is a sixteen-year-old accomplice of Tommy and Lasse in the break-in at the radio store at Islandstorget. The novel gives him little separate biography, but his actions place him within the group’s shared crime and its uneasy aftermath: he waits with Tommy and Lasse as the police investigation stalls, then returns with Lasse to ask for another tape.

Identity and Place in the Group

Robban is Tommy’s contemporary: both are sixteen and in their first year of high school. Lasse, by contrast, is nineteen and has a driver’s license, making him a practical part of the group’s getaway arrangements. The three are linked by their responsibility for the radio-store break-in, though the evidence offers more detail about the operation and its aftermath than about Robban’s individual contribution.

After the break-in, the group hides its take in an unused shelter room across from the basement storage area they use as a meeting place. They have cut away the chain and put on a new lock. The stolen goods are not easy to turn into profit: Lasse has sold one cassette tape to a work friend for two hundred, but little else has happened. Robban shares in the decision to keep the goods out of sight while the police are occupied elsewhere.

The Break-in and Its Aftermath

Two weeks after the burglary, Tommy has learned through his mother, who is dating Staffan of the Vällingby Police Department, that investigators have found no trace of the perpetrators and do not even have a description of the getaway car. The group used Lasse’s white Saab-74, altering its license plates with a marker; no one saw the car. Robban is part of the small circle privy to these details, and the lack of a lead gives the boys time to leave the stolen goods untouched.

At their meeting, Tommy keeps the others waiting while he pages through a motorcycle magazine, raising it now and then to show a striking picture. Robban drums his fingers against his thigh and presses Tommy to get on with what he is saying. The gesture marks impatience within a scene otherwise dominated by Tommy’s deliberate, self-satisfied delay: Robban wants the suspense to end, while Tommy controls the pace.

Later Appearance

On another occasion, Robban and Lasse arrive at about half past five. Tommy is already relaxing in the armchair, apparently unconcerned; Lasse looks nervous and sucks on his lips. Robban grins and thumps him on the back before telling Tommy that Lasse needs another tape. The moment returns the story to the group’s modest, uncertain dealings in the aftermath of the burglary. Robban’s grin and familiar gesture place him beside Lasse, while the request suggests that the stolen goods remain a matter of practical concern rather than a completed windfall.