The Summer Book is pure loveliness. The movements of tides and winds and boats and insects loom larger for our narrator than the currents of history, and the profound quiet of the setting—I'm reminded of Akhil Sharma's description of a prose like "white light"—allows us to hear Jansson's unsparing and ironic tenderness, a tone that remains purely her own, even in translation. I find this sort of writing – which has no real plot but is all about exploring characters – very hard to do and I am always lost in admiration when I see it done well. Sophia and Grandmother strike me as absolutely real, but even the cameos are brilliantly described – Jansson has a real flair for these thumbnail character sketches, unusual and specific: The truth is, I loved it! I could have probably finished this book in one sitting (it was THAT good). But with a few books on the go, I decided to savor this one and enjoy it. The odd thing is, while I really enjoyed this, it does not make me want to go and read more of Jansson's adult work. Oh, you mean he's dead,’ said Grandmother. She started thinking about all the euphemisms for death, all the anxious taboos that had always fascinated her. It was too bad you could never have an intelligent discussion on the subject. People were either too young or too old, or else they didn't have time.

The Slummer: Quarters Till Death by Geoffrey Simpson

There's a father in the story, though he never bores us with anything he has to say, and a sexy, loner neighbor named Eriksson who I hoped to God looked like this: Both the girl and the woman have wise mouths, and are not hesitant to voice their opinions. One too young to know any better, one too old to care. Few books since Robinson Crusoe have evoked the joys of island living so powerfully as this slim Finnish novel ... the story clings on to the imagination like the trusting hand of a child, or the clutch of an elderly woman.’ Jonathan Heawood, The Observer In the first chapter, Tove has written a book on the advice of her grandmother about Angleworms that have come apart. The worm knows that if it comes apart, both halves start growing separately. This kind of deep respect for nature is characteristic of Jansson’s writing, from the Moomin books, which focus on a family of trolls who live in harmony with their surroundings, to The Summer Book and the nine other novels and short-story collections she wrote for adults.The profoundly humane story of the unique friendship between the little girl Sophia and her grandmother, who spend endless summer days on an island far out in the archipelago, is loved by readers around the world. 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.

The Summer Book - Tove Jansson The Summer Book - Tove Jansson

Tove Jansson’s series of children’s books — about the Moomintroll and Moomin family —(books Jansson became famous for)….have been books on my (own) to be read list for awhile now — Which are your favorites of the games that Sophia and Grandmother play together? Did you play any games or do activities like that when you were a child? Was there anyone in your life like Grandmother? My Review: I am a person who likes quiet. My home environment, when I'm able to force my will on my roommate, is free of audio pollution like TV and radio. Perhaps in compensation, I love spy stories and space-war epics and historical novels with battles, explosions, near misses with the main character dangling from rooftops...the very essence of un-quiet. Both are strong-willed characters, though the grandmother at times is concerned about Sophia becoming too set in certain ways and tries to teach her how to get by in the world, as in the nice scene where she thinks: I look through the Contents, and there is not a story I did not enjoy. But maybe the "sausage", storm, and Venice stories are my favorites.The Summer Book is a slender, anecdotal novel, written in the clear, unadorned prose of a classic children’s book. It will slip by in an afternoon and be over before you know it. But don’t be fooled—Jansson is fearless. Moving seamlessly between the perspectives of a child and her grandmother, the novel plumbs the mysteries of aging and death, God and guilt, human folly in the face of nature’s power and the fragility of nature in the face of human folly. I was ready to move in with the family and spend the second half of my life on their blustery, small island filled with quirky, faraway neighbors and weird wood carvings of animals. Eriksson was small and strong and the colour of the landscape, except that his eyes were blue. When people talked about him or thought about him, it seemed natural to lift their heads and gaze out over the sea […. A]s long as he stayed, he had everyone's undivided attention. No one did anything, no one looked at anything but Eriksson. They would hang on his every word, and when he was gone and nothing had actually been said, their thoughts would dwell gravely on what he had left unspoken. I loved it and it's a perfect read for a summer which will, I think, be memorable for many of us as a kind of shadow season, a time carved out from normal life and defined by the absence of normality.

The Summer Book (New York Review Books Classics) The Summer Book (New York Review Books Classics)

The grandmother isn't quite a substitute, even though at one point Sophia tries to make her more of one, experimenting with calling her: "Mama". Poetic understatement, dry humor and a deep love for nature are obvious throughout her oeuvre. . . . The book is as lovely, as evocative as a film by Hayao Miyazaki. Nothing," her grandmother answered. "That is to say," she added angrily, "I'm looking for my false teeth."Translated from Swedish and written in 1974 these 22 short vignettes occur on a small island off the Gulf of Finland. Sophia, a precocious six year old, and her wise and spunky grandmother explore this island during one summer at their cottage. Whether seeking out the flora and fauna, weathering a violent storm, dealing with a difficult child or snooping around the vacant home of a newcomer, they delight in the present. Sophia, like many young children, has many difficult questions: life, death, love, God. She has recently lost her mother and her grandmother must answer her inquiries; she does so with wisdom and love. Every child should have a grandparent like Sophia's. Although she has age related physical limitations, she is always ready for an adventure: crawling on her hands and knees, carving woodland creatures, inventing stories and swimming in the frigid northern waters. They have their snits and their moods, but the loving relationship is never doubted. The importance of the few things you have around you on an island. The colour reproduction of the hermit and the lion on the wall, Father's huge and amazing robe, the driftwood, bones, flotsam and jetsam, all become very important.

The Summer Book by Tove Jansson | Waterstones The Summer Book by Tove Jansson | Waterstones

Lucy Knight, celebrating the book's 50th anniversary in The Guardian, quotes the novelist Ali Smith's description of The Summer Book, "a masterpiece of microcosm, a perfection of the small, quiet read". [5] Knight adds that Sophia Jansson – Tove's niece and the real-life model for the character of the granddaughter Sophia, [6] [7] thinks that Tove was "poking fun" at what people consider normal. In her view, the island allowed the Janssons, like the book's characters, to shape their own sort of "normality". Tolerance and care for nature were essential virtues. [5] Adaptations [ edit ] The future doesn't look that much different except that the wealth gap has gotten to the point where there is no crossover and hate for the "Slummers" is blatant. All the while the rich get richer, and they have used that wealth and power to start breeding their children according to a shopping list of desirable DNA. So now they are rich AND nearly perfect. An island* — *summers* — “are often described as being impossible to categorize or describe, as if to suggest that they defy not only human powers of speech but also, obstinately, comprehension”. There is an absence that haunts the book -- or rather the two characters --, mentioned early on, as Sophia wakes and remembers: "she had a bed to herself because her mother was dead".

Although known first and foremost as an author, Tove Jansson considered her careers as author and painter to be of equal importance. The Summer Book’ is often talked about this way. Tove Jansson wrote it in 1972, a year after the death of her mother, the artist Signe Hammersten. Their bond had been close and Jansson’s grief was intense; it is the dark generative heart of a book that describes the relations between a very old woman and her six-year-old granddaughter, Sophia, and the life that goes on around them on a very small island over the course of a single summer”. Here," said her grandmother. "I was standing right there and they fell somewhere in the peonies." They looked together. The writing is lovely. The characters are charming and real. The stories give an immersive look at the as-yet-otherwise-unknown-to-me experience of a Scandinavian summer that feels totally new, and simultaneously gives a look at a childhood summer that is so familiar and comfortable and nostalgic.