The Summer Book

Description

By (author) Jansson Tove

Short /annotation:
An elderly artist and her six-year-old grand-daughter are away on 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.

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Tove Jansson”s classic, bestselling novelSoon to be a major motion picture starring Glenn Close”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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This slim, wise masterpiece… is both unsentimental and heart-melting, and I read it every year.

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It is like looking through clear water and seeing, suddenly, the depth … Jansson was a writer who knew the proper magnitudes of our small worlds.

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The Summer Book”s limpid style belies a deep psychological subtlety…Rereading it now, it feels like a survival guide.

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Tove Jansson was a genius. This is a marvellous, beautiful, wise novel, which is also very funny.

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This is a wonderful, life-affirming, spirited book. Reading it was a tonic.

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It”s hard to describe the astonishing achievement of Jansson”s artistry . . . a perfection of the small, quiet read.

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The Summer Book is a marvellously uplifting read, full of gentle humour and wisdom.

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Eccentric, funny, wise, full of joys and small adventures. This is a book for life.

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A marvellous book…. The prose is sublime: plain, but not oppressively so.

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Few books since Robinson Crusoe have evoked the joys of island living so powerfully as this Finnish novella.

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A wonderful novel to devour in the sunshine . . . full of charm and character.

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An odd but beautiful novel which blends humour and poetry with detailed observation of tiny things.

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Every so often, a book is published that captures something in us. . . . The Summer Book is one of those.

Biographical note:
The writer and artist Tove Jansson (1914-2001) is best known as the creator of the Moomin children”s stories, which have been published in 35 languages. The Summer Book was one of ten novels she wrote for adults. It is regarded as a classic of world fiction.