Ex Libris Kirkland

Buy it from Amazon

First Written 1972
Genre Fiction
Origin Finland
Publisher NYRB Classics
ISBN-10 159017268X
My Copy paperback
First Read August 02, 2019

The Summer Book



I love Tove Jannson's Moomin series so much, I was afraid I wouldn't like her writing for adults. But here's the secret: the MOOMIN BOOKS ARE FOR ADULTS.

Also, there's this, her most famous non-moomin work. It's a novella of sorts, vignettes of childhood memories spending summers on a remote island in Finland. The two main characters here are a young girl and her grandmother. Both are willful and cranky and obstinate and sort of just barely understanding their emotions.

Noted on August 20, 2019

“Why are you in such a rush?" Sophia asked, and her grandmother answered that it was a good idea to do things before you forgot that they had to be done.

Quoted on August 20, 2019

An island can be dreadful for someone from outside. Everything is complete, and everyone has his obstinate, sure and self-sufficient place. Within their shores, everything functions according to rituals that are as hard as rock from repetition, and at the same time they amble through their days as whimsically and casually as if the world ended at the horizon.

Quoted on August 20, 2019


Ex Libris Kirkland is a super-self-absorbed reading journal made by Matt Kirkland. Copyright © 2001 - .
Interested in talking about it?
Get in touch. You might also want to check out my other projects or say hello on twitter.