The Summer Book by Tove Jansson, is a beautiful novel about a grandaughter and grandmother living on an island in the Finnish Arpelago. This is one of Tove Janssons’ adult novels although she is much more famous as the creator of the moomins. This book however really deserves to be held up as a great novel. It has a sparse language and minimal action and a strange humour, but it is powerful and beguiling without having to resort to a weird or action packed plot. I always think the really best writers are the ones whose language remains simple while being able to communicate in a subtle way, and this Jansson really can do. Perhaps it sometimes crosses the line of being a little too minimal but its brevity and lightness of touch save it. You get pulled in quickly and completely. Definetly mostly autobiographical I would think, it also somehow conveys the summer cottage experience that finns love. I highly recommend this book.
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson, is a beautiful novel about a grandaughter and grandmother living on an island in the Finnish Arpelago. This is one of Tove Janssons’ adult novels although she is much more famous as the creator of the moomins. This book however really deserves to be held up as a great novel. It has a sparse language and minimal action and a strange humour, but it is powerful and beguiling without having to resort to a weird or action packed plot. I always think the really best writers are the ones whose language remains simple while being able to communicate in a subtle way, and this Jansson really can do. Perhaps it sometimes crosses the line of being a little too minimal but its brevity and lightness of touch save it. You get pulled in quickly and completely. Definetly mostly autobiographical I would think, it also somehow conveys the summer cottage experience that finns love. I highly recommend this book.