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Available
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Publication
Sort Of Books (2006), Paperback, 192 pages
Description
Following the widely acclaimed and bestselling The Summer Book, here is A Winter Book collection of some of Tove Jansson's best loved and most famous stories. Drawn from youth and older age, and spanning most of the twentieth century, this newly translated selection provides a thrilling showcase of the great Finnish writer's prose, scattered with insights and home truths. It has been selected and is introduced by Ali Smith.A Winter Book features 13 stories from Tove Jansson's first book for adults,The Sculptor's Daughter (1968) plus 7 of her most cherished later stories (from 1971 to 1996), translated into English and published here for the first time.
User reviews
LibraryThing member deliriumslibrarian
Hooray for Tove Jansson, queen of the north and friend of all small people everywhere. A magnificent collection of short stories about states of innocence, the hard work of living, things that glitter and the difficulties of communication. Absolutely sparkling.
LibraryThing member RandyMetcalfe
Tove Jansson’s stories beguile. Most are set on or near the islands off the coast of Finland. Most are quasi-autobiographical. Raised in a family of artists, she knows the pleasures and the effort involved in artistic achievement. The most damning accusation the small child stand-in for Jansson
Some, such as “The Stone”, capture the intensity of a child’s perception and the importance of a child’s objectives. Others, such as “Flying”, partake of a magic-realist touch, but without any posturing. Always, even in “Flying” the stories are grounded in a concrete, practical, love of the physical—the sea, the wind, the small beauties found on a Nordic islet, the presence of mother and father, the games a solitary child plays to amuse herself.
Of course, across so many years one expects to see a wide range of stories, and this collection does not disappoint. “The Squirrel” and “The Boat and Me” stand out as remarkable achievements, I think. But all of the stories here are well worth a read, a welcome addition to the writings of Jansson available in English.
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can think of in one of the stories is to call the woman she dislikes an amateur. That challenge for authenticity, for aesthetic realism, for the right word or gesture, persists across the 30 years from which these stories are drawn.Some, such as “The Stone”, capture the intensity of a child’s perception and the importance of a child’s objectives. Others, such as “Flying”, partake of a magic-realist touch, but without any posturing. Always, even in “Flying” the stories are grounded in a concrete, practical, love of the physical—the sea, the wind, the small beauties found on a Nordic islet, the presence of mother and father, the games a solitary child plays to amuse herself.
Of course, across so many years one expects to see a wide range of stories, and this collection does not disappoint. “The Squirrel” and “The Boat and Me” stand out as remarkable achievements, I think. But all of the stories here are well worth a read, a welcome addition to the writings of Jansson available in English.
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LibraryThing member janeajones
A Winter Book is a collection of stories from Jansson's autobiographical The Sculptor's Daughter (Bildhuggarens Dotter) and other collections not translated into English. I wish New York Review of Books or some other publisher would reprint The Sculptor's Daughter as it is impossible to get a copy
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in English. The stories are beautifully written although here we have excerpts rather than complete works. Show Less
LibraryThing member pokarekareana
I wanted to like this book more than I really did. The stories are well-written and have some beautiful images, but after a time, it began to feel like they were part of a longer, disjointed prose, rather than a set of short stories.
LibraryThing member iansales
Jansson apparently came to adult fiction late. She was in her fifties before she wrote her first novel that wasn’t children’s fiction. She also wrote a number of short stories. A Winter Book is cobbled together from a previous collection – not translated into English, IIRC – and a number of
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uncollected stories. They’re grouped thematically, and many deal with childhood in some way. Except for the ones that are about old age. Those who have read other fiction by Jansson will know what to expect. She’s very good at describing the world she knew – pretty much every story she wrote drew on her own life. So we have stories set in Finnish winters, and stories that take place among the islands during the summer. It’s all very smooth and effortless storytelling, although some stories are more interesting than others. And yet, the collection itself doesn’t exactly linger. I read it more than a month ago and I’d be hard-pressed to describe any of the stories in it. Perhaps it’s that smoothness. Worth reading, though I suspect fans will get more out of it than I did. Show Less
LibraryThing member greeniezona
I am so delighted that I found a used copy of this at the local bookstore. Of course I knew that I would love it, and I did. Filled with so much of the same sweet melancholic yearnings and childhood fierceness of the Moomin books -- just without the fantasy world. Even though it may seen fantastic
Delightful and observant, these stories are a wonder.
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to an American reader -- going to live on an island for a season, with maybe only one person for company, children going off on adventures in boats by themselves, icebergs washing up on the shore...Delightful and observant, these stories are a wonder.
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LibraryThing member PDCRead
I have fond memories of Jansson from childhood as I loved her Moonmin books, so I was looking forward to this one, and maybe reliving a little of my reading past.
It is a collection of short stories for adults, loosely grouped under the catchall of Winter, and the stories are split into three
There is a huge variety to the stories, from a series of letters from an individual to people, some messages, which were a little surreal and slightly longer stories. One or two of the stories were lovely, my two favourites were The Iceberg and The Squirrel. Others were less good.
I didn't completely understand the Title of the book, as there were very few stories specifically on winter. Apart from the two that i mentioned above, I was not that keen on most of them, but that said, the prose was beautiful and she has such a way with words and descriptions. Still intend on reading her Summer book though.
It is a collection of short stories for adults, loosely grouped under the catchall of Winter, and the stories are split into three
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sections,Snow, Flotsam and Jetsam and Travelling Light.There is a huge variety to the stories, from a series of letters from an individual to people, some messages, which were a little surreal and slightly longer stories. One or two of the stories were lovely, my two favourites were The Iceberg and The Squirrel. Others were less good.
I didn't completely understand the Title of the book, as there were very few stories specifically on winter. Apart from the two that i mentioned above, I was not that keen on most of them, but that said, the prose was beautiful and she has such a way with words and descriptions. Still intend on reading her Summer book though.
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LibraryThing member MeisterPfriem
These wonderful stories are little gems, more directly autobiographical than those in the ‘Summer Book’. I may even prefer some of them to those. They are as Esther Freud writes: infused with a strong sense of Tove Jansson’s character … determined, indignant, fearless as a child … and
(I have one issue with the translation: Kingsley Hart’s use of ‘Mummy’ and ‘Daddy’; I dislike these sugary familiar forms, much better I find: ‘Mama’ and ‘Papa’ the familiar expressions Thomas Teal uses in the ‘Summer Book’. But that is my personal taste.) (IX-23
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still so in old age. Not all set during the winter months.(I have one issue with the translation: Kingsley Hart’s use of ‘Mummy’ and ‘Daddy’; I dislike these sugary familiar forms, much better I find: ‘Mama’ and ‘Papa’ the familiar expressions Thomas Teal uses in the ‘Summer Book’. But that is my personal taste.) (IX-23
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Awards
Language
Original publication date
1998
Physical description
192 p.; 7.64 inches
ISBN
0954899520 / 9780954899523