The Summer Book (New York Review Books Classics)

Synopsis

A grandmother and her six-year-old granddaughter spend the summer together on a tiny island in the Gulf of Finland, where the days are shaped by wandering shorelines, building bark boats, inventing games, and quiet conversations about life, death, love, and the natural world. Told through a series of luminous vignettes, The Summer Book captures the rhythms of island life with remarkable clarity and tenderness.

Drawing on her own summers spent on a remote Finnish island, Tove Jansson creates a novel of extraordinary warmth, humour, and wisdom. Beautifully translated by Thomas Teal, The Summer Book has become a modern classic, beloved for its gentle observations and enduring celebration of the small moments that make up a life.

About the Author

Tove Jansson (1914–2001) was a Finnish-Swedish writer, artist, and illustrator, best known internationally as the creator of the Moomins. Alongside her beloved children's books, she wrote acclaimed novels and short fiction for adults, much of it inspired by the landscapes and island life of the Finnish archipelago. Her work is celebrated for its emotional depth, quiet humour, and profound understanding of human relationships.

Publisher
NYRB Classics

Publication Date
April 30, 2008

Format
Paperback

Pages
176

Subjects
Literary Fiction · Classics · Scandinavian Literature · Finnish Literature · Nature Writing

ISBN
9781590172681

Tove Jansson, whose Moomintroll comic strip and books brought her international acclaim, lived for much of her life on an island like the one described in The Summer Book, and the work can be enjoyed as her closely observed journal of the sounds, sights, and feel of a summer spent in intimate contact with the natural world. 

The Summer Book is translated from the Swedish by Thomas Teal.