Letters from Tove

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A virtual memoir in letters by the beloved creator of the Moomins

Tove Janssons works, even her famed Moomin books, fairly teem with letters of one kind or another, from messages bobbing in bottles to whole epistolary novels. Fortunately for her countless readers, her life was no different, unfolding as it did in the letters to family, friends, and lovers that make up this volume, a veritable autobiography over the course of six decadesand the only one Jansson ever wrote. And just as letters carry a weight of significance in Janssons writing, those she wrote throughout her life reflect the gravity of her circumstances, the depth of her thoughts and feelings, and the critical moments of humor, sadness, and grace that mark an artists days.

These letters, penned with characteristic insight and wit, provide an almost seamless commentary on Janssons life within Helsinkis bohemian circles and on her island home. Shifting between hope and despair, yearning and happiness, they describe her immersion in art studies and her ascension to fame with the Moomins. They speak frankly of friendship and love, loneliness and solidarity, and also of politics, art, literature, and society. They summon a particular place and time reflected through a mind finely attuned to her culture, her world, and her own natureall clearly put into biographical and historical context by the volumes editors, both longtime friends of Tove Janssonand, in the end, draw a complex, intimate self-portrait of one of the worlds most beloved authors.

Reviews

"Reading these letters, you will gradually fall under the illusion that they are addressed to you. This is how inviting, candid, and quietly dazzling Tove Janssons prose is in her correspondence. Letters from Tove is a fundamental addition to Janssons oeuvre. At the end of the book, you will feel that you have a new, very close friend."Hernan Diaz, author of In the Distance

"Tove Jansson was a genius, a woman of profound wisdom and great artistry."Philip Pullman

"Its hard to describe the astonishing achievement of Janssons artistry."Ali Smith

"Tove Jansson is one of the greatest childrens writers there has ever been."Sir Terry Pratchett

"Witty, shrewd, and hugely entertaining."The Spectator

"Treasures aplentycultural history gems as well as biographical revelations, all related in a voice thats funny, gracious, intimate."The Guardian

"Offers readers the privilege of spending time inside an intelligent, creative, curious, generous, funny, unsentimental mind."The Irish Times

Author Bio

Finnish writer, artist, and political cartoonist Tove Jansson (19142001) is best known for her books about the Moomins, adventurous, amusing cartoon trolls who had much in common with their bohemian, nature-loving author and, it seems, shared many of her familys traits. She is also the author of eleven novels and short-story collections for adults, including The Summer Book and The True Deceiver.

Boel Westin is professor of literature at Stockholm University and author of the biography Tove Jansson: Life, Words, Art. She is chairman of jury for the worlds largest childrens literature prize, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.

Helen Svensson was a literary manager at Schildts Forlag Publishers for thirty years where she was Janssons last editor.

Sarah Death is a prizewinning literary translator, mainly from Swedish, with some forty translated titles to her name.