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The summer book / Tove Jansson ; translated from the Swedish by Thomas Teal ; foreword by Esther Freud.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextLanguage: English Original language: Swedish Publication details: London : Sort Of Books, 2003, c1974.Description: 172 pages ; 20 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 0954221710(pbk.) :
Uniform titles:
  • Sommarboken. English
Subject(s): Genre/Form: Subject: An elderly artist and her six-year-old granddaughter while away a summer together on a tiny island in the gulf of Finland. Gradually, the two learn to adjust to each other's fears, whims and yearnings for independence, and a fierce yet understated love emerges - one that encompasses not only the summer inhabitants but the island itself.
Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Call number Copy number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Fiction Davis (Central) Library Fiction Collection Fiction Collection JAN 1 Available T00569598
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A profoundly life affirming story about a small girl and her grandmother who are kindred spirits.

Republished with a new foreword. - Originally published: New York : Pantheon ; London : Hutchinson, 1975.

An elderly artist and her six-year-old granddaughter while away a summer together on a tiny island in the gulf of Finland. Gradually, the two learn to adjust to each other's fears, whims and yearnings for independence, and a fierce yet understated love emerges - one that encompasses not only the summer inhabitants but the island itself.

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Reviews provided by Syndetics

Kirkus Book Review

Ms. Jansson, who wrote those ""Moominland"" fancies for children, has directed her inventive hook-and-button plain talk at some adult concerns. In this series of brief dialogues and adventures of Grandmother (85) and Sophia (ten), the second childhood parallels the first in new awarenesses and incipient rebellion; but on the lonely way of the aging, hobbled by physical frailty, there are moments of sudden, inexplicable sadness. Grandmother and Sophia for the most part are honest contemporaries; they forage on their nearly isolated island, plot and explore, solemnly converse and flare up at one another: ""Shall I tell [your father] how you were brave?"" asks Grandmother. ""You can tell it on your deathbed so it doesn't go to waste,"" says Sophia. ""That's a bloody good idea,"" decides Grandmother. But while the family (the father is there but not heard from) goes about island survival and diversions -- the lights of Midsummer Eve, drought, a flood and storms, an alien neighbor -- Grandmother tentatively exposes herself to feelings about life and its endings: ""Unless I tell [a tale from my youth] . . . it gets closed off and then it's lost."" She is puzzled by an elderly friend's calm: "". . . don't you ever get curious? Or upset? Or simply terrified?"" Old woman and child edge toward their own thresholds, and at the close Grandmother is resting and waiting. Spindrift perceptions, fresh and penetrating. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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