Take a book in which nothing happens and there is no plot, but
there are lashings of positive feelings presented simply, and it
will become a cult. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (now
past its 25th anniversary edition) and Jonathan Livingston Seagull
are both bestsellers. The Summer Book is in this mould - it manages
to make you feel good as well as wise, without having to make too
much effort. It has already achieved modern classic status in the
author's native Scandinavia, where it has been in print since first
published over 30 years ago. Although Jansson is best known for her
Moomin children's books, this is no-frills adult fiction that reads
like memoir. An old woman spends the summers on a tiny island in
the Gulf of Finland with her six-year-old granddaughter. They
wander around, pick flowers, watch storms, take an occasional trip
in a rowing boat to a neighbouring island, talk about and to the
cat, and turn over stones. But under every stone they turn, there's
an observation far deeper than the island's shallow soil. When the
grandmother proclaims, 'Only farmers and summer guests walk on the
moss.... The second time it doesn't rise back up. And the third
time you step on moss, it dies,' you know she's not really talking
about moss at all, but delivering a lesson on life itself.
Jansson's delight with small things is infectious. Her Lilliputian
kingdom, based on a real island she inhabited, may have no great
sights or dramatic landscape but when she describes the way a
raindrop sits on a single leaf, we are entranced. This charming
book demonstrates that you don't have to be grand to be great.
Review by Dea Birkett (Kirkus UK)
Celebrating 50 years of Tove Jansson's classic, bestselling novel
'Distils the essence of summer' Robert Macfarlane 'Magical,
life-affirming' Elizabeth Gilbert The Worldwide Classic about a
tiny island and larger love. An elderly artist and her six-year-old
grand-daughter while away 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 - one
that encompasses not only the summer inhabitants but the very
island itself. Written in a clear, unsentimental style, full of
brusque humour, and wisdom, The Summer Book is a profoundly
life-affirming story. Tove Jansson captured much of her own life
and spirit in the book, which was her favourite of her adult
novels. With a foreword by Esther Freud and an afterword by Sophia
Jansson (on whom the child 'Sophia' is based) who returns to the
island during the pandemic at the point of becoming a grandmother
herself. Includes a 15pp epilogue by Tove's niece Sophia Jansson -
the inspiration for 'Sophia' - on a personal and moving return to
the island. 'Eccentric, funny, wise, full of joys and small
adventures. This is a book for life.' Esther Freud 'Tove Jansson
was a genius. This is a marvellous, beautiful, wise novel, which is
also very funny.' Philip Pullman
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