The Summer Book
Tove Jansson, Thomas Teal (translation), Emma Freud (foreword)This brief novel tells the story of Sophia, a six-year-old girl awakening to existence, & Sophia’s grandmother, nearing the end of hers, as they spend the summer on a tiny unspoiled island in the Gulf of Finland. The grandmother is unsentimental & wise if a little cranky; Sophia is impetuous & volatile, but she tends to her grandmother with the care of a new parent.
Together they amble over coastline ' forest in easy companionship, build boats from bark, create a miniature Venice, & write a fanciful study of local bugs. They discuss things that matter to young & old alike: life, death, the nature of God & of love. “On an island,” thinks the grandmother, “everything is complete.”
Written in a clear, unsentimental style, full of brusque humour, & wisdom, The Summer Book is a profoundly life-affirming story. Tove Jansson captured much of her own life & spirit in the book, which was her favourite of her adult novels.
Tove Jansson, whose Moomintroll comic strip & books brought her international acclaim, lived for much of her life on an island like the one described in The Summer Book, & the work can be enjoyed as her closely observed journal of the sounds, sights, & feel of a summer spent in intimate contact with the natural world.
This new edition, with a Foreword by Esther Freud, sees the return of a European literary gem - fresh, authentic & deeply humane.
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“The book is brittle & brooding, but in a gracious way. It’s not padded with mush, just wisdom that feels vital & human in a naturally precarious world. Jansson’s others—Fair Play, The True Deceiver, more—are just as short & just as worth a read.” — Kenzie Bryant, Vanity Fair