Written in a clear, unsentimental style, full of brusque humour and wisdom, The Summer Book by Tove Jansson is a life-affirming story.
An elderly artist and her six-year-old granddaughter spend a summer together on a tiny island in the Gulf of Finland. As the two learn to adjust to each other’s fears, whims and yearnings, a fierce yet understated love emerges. Tove Jansson captured much of her own life and spirit in The Summer Book, which was her favourite of her adult novels.
This 50th anniversary edition includes an afterword by Sophia Jansson (on whom the child in the story is based) who returns to the island at the point of becoming a grandmother herself.
‘Tove Jansson was a genius. This is a marvellous, beautiful, wise novel, which is also very funny.’ Philip Pullman
‘Eccentric, funny, wise, full of joys and small adventures. This is a book for life.’ Esther Freud
‘Distils the essence of summer’ Robert Macfarlane
Dear Jansson San
In the 1960s, long before J. K. Rowling showed the world how literary fame might be managed, Tove Jansson, pursued by her own creations the Moomins – white hippopotamus-shaped trolls with tails but...
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