The Summer Book by Tove Jansson

Chosen by my book groups at @simplybookshq , I ended up reading The Summer Book at the most demonstrative time in Autumn. I’d take it to work on the bus and watch brown leaves fall from roadside trees, crisp air blowing through the open windows. It was seasonally out-of-sync. And yet, somehow, it worked perfectly as a gentle ease into the quieter season.

The Summer Book revolves around a grandmother and granddaughter who spend a summer on a small family-owned island in the Gulf of Finland. They laze around on the rocky beach, swim in cold waters, amble around the nature unique to the island, noticing the changes in weather and passing boats and far-out islands, always chatting with one another. Little happens - if you’re wanting a plot-centric book, I fear you’re out of luck - aside from the daily motions of their cohabitation.

And yet, in simple, almost childlike prose, a quiet reflection on family ties and memories, human connection to the natural world, and intergenerational love occurs. There is also humour and silliness - I loved the chapters where Sophia and her grandmother end up in a funny predicament, Sophia headstrong and her grandmother going along with her antics.

I was able to pick the book up and put it down often. The chapters read as individual short stories. But I enjoyed it nonetheless.

The afterword by Sophia written over 30 years after the original publication brought a beautiful grounding to the work. It put Tove’s inspirations for the novel into perspective and also promised the ongoing use of the island for similar adventures.