A WINTER BOOK

'A Winter Book’ is a collection of best loved short stories by the popular Finnish writer and artist Tove Jansson, translated and published into English for the first time. Full of heart warming observations and charm, the book will lighten up any January blues respecting the Nordic wonders and simpler pleasures in life.

This collection follows the widely acclaimed ‘The Summer Book’ and is inspired by Janssen’s own memories and experiences growing up in the dramatically beautiful Nordic setting.

The book takes the reader from the author’s Bohemian family home in Helsinki out into the Nordic islands and along the coast line and archipelago. The stories portray a way of life peculiar to its Scandinavian countryside in which there is an overwhelming appreciation of the landscape's natural beauty as well as an acknowledgement of its dangers. The stories balance the inherited wisdom about survival from its elders who have understood the rules of the sea whilst appreciating nature's awe-inspiring beauty.

The collection spans Tove’s own life experiences and is brimming with stories of the human heart that can be enjoyed for its brevity of words (without losing its depth of sentiment). Den readers picked out different stories that captured their imagination or similar life experiences and it was wonderful to take oneself away to a magical place, lifting our spirits as we settle into the New Year.

For those familiar with Jansson’s work, the author was made famous as the creator and illustrator of the Moomin books which are comic strip stories written for children. This imagination is matched in her short stories and certainly inspired an admiration for colder climes.