One of the most unique works of fiction I've ever read. I guess this author is more known for her children series about the Moomin characters, but I haven't read those, so this was my first introduction to Finnish author Tove Jansson. It was dark in topic and imagery but also light, in structure ...
I liked "The True Deceiver" by Tove Jansson, and I read it awhile ago, butt there is nothing lasting about this book that I can even remember. I have read the back synopsis and Ali Smith's introduction again, but this is one of those book, where a month post reading, I don't remember a thing abou...
I found it strange that Katri's struggle with her different appearance and unusually logical personality could grab my interest so quickly. Jansson quickly sets up the adversarial position of this shunned young woman, determined to take advantage of an apparently sentimental, reclusive and wealt...
Tove Jansson was an extraordinary writer. Her spare prose evokes the Finnish winter in this story about two very different women who become part of each other's lives. Both are changed, not necessarily for the better. This isn't a feel-good book. It asks a lot of questions, the main one being...
The Moomins, a family of trolls, have appeared in my life in various ways; I vaguely remember having read (or having been read) one of the novels as a young child - as an older child I remember the animated series on television. I happened across it by accident and spent much time in enjoyable c...
Della serie sui Mumin questo per me è decisamente il migliore; i Mumin, se non lo sapete, sono deliziosi troll simili a ippopotami, per nulla spaventosi ma gentili e dotati di una pelle vellutata.In questo libro il troll Mumin si ritrova a svegliarsi nel bel mezzo del letargo senza riuscire più a...
Here Moominpappa gets the chance to tell with his own words about his younger years. A dismal childhood in an orphanage and the feeling of not being loved or appreciated changes into great adventures with Hodgkins and his ship. Moominpappa's narrative voice is pompous and self-centered but not ...
Do you know what Moomins are? They are a family of white, roundish fanciful creatures with large snouts like hippopotamuses and are the subjects of a series of nine children’s fairy tale like books written and illustrated by Tove Marika Jansson (1914–2001), a Swedish-speaking Finnish novelist, ...
«Выдуманный мир моих муми-троллей - это мир, по которому наверняка в глубине души тоскует каждый из нас», - говорила сама Туве Янссон. Вообще Туве Янссон была художницей. И еще писала взрослые серьезные книги. Но для большинства читателей Туве Янссон - та, кто придумала очаровательный мир муми-тр...
In my opinion, Tove Jannson is the best children's author who ever lived and one of the ten greatest authors of the twentieth century. I have only read her Moomintroll work and not the work for adults, but I have read almost all of the Moomintroll books, picture books and comic strips. In this ...
What a bunch of strange, opaque, elliptical little stories. This is my first entry into the Moomin world, Jansson's books having passed me by as a child. I was dubious - the pastelly coloured covers of the editions I keep weighing in my hands then returning to the shelves in Unity have put me off...
This is quite a different moomin book. Like others have said in their reviews, on first sight it is quite a melancholy book. This is why I never read that far as a child. I got it as a Christmas present though as a child and I'm quite happy I did even if I didn't finish it, because I get a warm a...
“Are you crazy calling in the middle of the night? There are people here.” “Now listen to what I’m going to say,” he said. His voice sounded odd because he was trying to be calm and failing. “I can’t give you any names. Don’t ask. But someone called to say I have to go and...
Sophia woke up and remembered that they had come back to the island and that she had a bed to herself because her mother was dead. The fire was still burning in the stove, and the flames flickered on the ceiling, where the boots were hung up to dry. She climbed down to the floor, which was very c...
Once, before his children and his children’s children and his children’s children’s children covered the face of the earth, Grandfather came to a long field which was surrounded by forests and hills so that it looked like Paradise. At one end it opened out into a bay for his descendants to bathe ...
It was written by Tove Jansson in 1945. It must have been late in the afternoon one day at the end of August when Moomintroll and his mother arrived at the deepest part of the great forest. It was completely quiet, and so dim between the trees that it was as though twilight had already fallen. He...
Only then did I feel safe. Or, more exactly, when the ship had moved far enough from the quay for it to be impossible for anyone to call out… ask for my address, scream that something awful had happened… Believe me, you can’t imagine my giddy sense of freedom. I unbuttoned my overcoat and took ou...
There's simply a sudden click! - and the situation is saved. Like this one, for instance.Here's the Booble, grumbling, bumbling and shouting at us, and here are we, looking rather foolish, and then I say (quite calmly): 'Hullo, uncle! Glad to see you again!' And of course this doesn't stop him sh...
At low water, the lagoon became a lake. Seals had played there in the old days, before they were shot or moved on to quieter locations. Now eider hens used it for a nursery. The cottage stood on one side of the lagoon; the other side was sea-bird territory. Guano streaked the granite like snow, a...