The Summer Book

 TOVE JANSSON

 WITH A FOREWORD BY ESTHER FREUD An elderly artist and her six-year-old grand-daughter while away a summer together on a tiny island in the gulf of Finland. As the two learn to adjust to each other's fears, whims and yearnings, a fierce yet understated love emerges - one that encompasses not only the summer inhabitants but the very island itself.

Written in a clear, unsentimental style, full of brusque humour, and wisdom, The Summer Book is a profoundly life-affirming story. Tove Jansson captured much of her own life and spirit in the book, which was her favourite of her adult novels. This new edition, with a Foreword by Esther Freud, sees the return of a European literary gem - fresh, authentic and deeply humane. New and beautifully presented edition of a Scandinavian literary classic by Finland's most translated author should appeal to all ages dissolving boundaries between fiction, biography and travel.

Fair Play 
A novel by Tove Jansson Translated from the Swedish by Thomas Teal.

 INTRODUCED BY ALI SMITH "So what can happen when Tove Jansson turns her attention to her own favourite subjects, love and work, in this novel about two women, lifelong partners and friends? Expect something philosophically calm - and discreetly radical. Its publication is cause for huge celebration." Ali Smith, from her introduction to Fair Play.
 The writer and artist TOVE JANSSON (1914-2001) is best known as the creator of the Moomin stories, which have been published in thirty-five languages. However, from 1968, she turned her attention to writing for adults. Fair Play was her last novel, written when she was seventy-five. 

Sort of Books have also published Tove Jansson's classic The Summer Book (2003) and A Winter Book: Selected Stories (2006), which draws from five collections to present the best of her short fiction. A charming, quietly radical and inspiring book, introduced by Ali Smith. First ever publication in English, in a translation by Thomas Teal.

"The rich seam that is Jansson's adult prose continues with this penultimate collection of short stories, written in her seventies at the height of her Moomin fame and translated into English for the first time. In these light-footed, beautifully crafted yet disquieting stories, Jansson tells of discomfiting encounters, unlooked for connections and moments of isolation that span generations and decades. Letters From Klara proves yet again her mastery of this literary form."

An elderly caretaker at a large outdoor exhibition, called Art in Nature, finds that a couple have lingered on to bicker about the value of a picture; he has a surprising suggestion that will resolve both their row and his own ambivalence about the art market. A draughtsman's obsession with drawing locomotives provides a dark twist to a love story. A cartoonist takes over the work of a colleague who has suffered a nervous breakdown only to discover that his own sanity is in danger. In these witty, sharp, often disquieting stories, Tove Jansson reveals the fault-lines in our relationship with art, both as artists and as consumers. Obsession, ambition, and the discouragement of critics are all brought into focus in these wise and cautionary tales. Translated into English for the first time by Thomas Teal.

*“What sort of thing are you?” asked the little creature. “I’m a moomintroll,” answered Moomintroll, who had had time to feel brave again. “And this is my mother…”* And so, for the very first time, we meet the young Moomin, Moominmamma and Sniff as they search through forest and flood for long lost Moominpappa, last seen wandering with the Hattifatteners. Along the way, in a series of delightful adventures, they encounter Hemulens, stranded kittens and the blue-haired Tulippa. The Moomins and the Great Flood was the original Moomin story, published in Finland in 1945. A rediscovered gem, it offers an extraordinary glimpse into Tove Jansson’s unique vision, featuring beautiful sepia watercolours as well as the pen and ink drawings that would become her trademark.