Finnish author and artist Tove Jansson (1914 – 2001) is perhaps most famous for her series of children’s books featuring the Moomintrolls which published in English over sixty years ago and have remained in print ever since. In later life she turned her attention to writing for adults and produced several novels and short story collections. The Summer Book became a classic bestseller and tells the story of Sophia, a six-year-old girl awakening to existence, and Sophia’s grandmother, nearing the end of hers, as they spend the summer on a tiny unspoiled island in the Gulf of Finland. It is a beautiful, gentle book with no plot, just twenty or so poignant, and sometimes funny, vignettes of their time together.
