The Slummer: Quarters Till Death

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Their relationship is real. They play cards (both cheating we are told). They argue about god. Sophia wonders how god hears all the prayers if he's so busy. "He's very smart" answers the grandmother but when Sophia further questions her further "He has secretaries..." she is told. The grandmother shows her the life in flowers and clouds and small animals. Sophia hears the word "bloody" and suddenly everything is "bloody this" and "bloody that". The grandmother first asks her where these harsh words are coming from and then uses them herself! They both love the natural world around them and using their imagination. Signe Hammarsten-Jansson – Jansson's mother and the real-life model for the character of Sophia's grandmother. [7] D'Alessandro, Anthony (2 March 2023). "Glenn Close To Star In Charlie McDowell's Feature Take Of Finnish Novel 'The Summer Book' ". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved 3 March 2023. And even where so little seems to happen, everything is of consequence -- with Jansson's success also built on the fact that she doesn't try to hammer home that point, but rather lets the reader come to see it on their own.

THE SUMMER BOOK – Reading Group Choices THE SUMMER BOOK – Reading Group Choices

a b Knight, Lucy (1 September 2022). " 'A masterpiece': why Tove Jansson's The Summer Book is as relevant as ever at 50". The Guardian. Tove Jansson (1914-2001) was born in Helsinki into Finland‘s Swedish speaking minority. Her father was a sculptor and her mother a graphic designer and illustrator. Winters were spent in the family’s art-filled studio and summers in the fisherman’s cottage on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, a setting that would later figure in Jansson’s writing for adults and children. Jansson loved books as a child, and set out from an early age to be an artist; her first illustration was published when she was fifteen years old; four years later a picture book appeared under a pseudonym”. Geoffrey is the author of the middle-school aged adventure-mystery series, The Three Hares, and the near-future, speculative fiction novel, The Slummer. Sometimes people never saw things clearly until it was too late and they no longer had the strength to start again. Or else they forgot their idea along the way and didn’t even realize that they had forgotten”. There is an absence that haunts the book -- or rather the two characters --, mentioned early on, as Sophia wakes and remembers: "she had a bed to herself because her mother was dead".I look through the Contents, and there is not a story I did not enjoy. But maybe the "sausage", storm, and Venice stories are my favorites. And we know, if the child does not, that the summers of her grandmother are limit; she has already passed into the autumn of her life and winter is nipping at her heels. But what a blessed thing this time is for them both, for Grandmother has a chance to see the wonder that her life has been and Sophia is building memories that will someday stand in for this person she must surely lose. Grandmother‘s world was shrinking—Sophia’s world was stretching. The space between them became the larger space between both of their lives. This slim, magical, life-affirming novel tells the story of a young girl and her grandmother, who spend their summers together on a small island in the Gulf of Finland. Absent of sentimentality, it is full of love and humor and wisdom.’ Elizabeth Gilbert, The New York Times I’ve been a runner for over 25 years and The Slummer is the first novel about running that I couldn’t put down and was the most inspired by. For me, it’s a much better story than even Once a Runner, the cult classic running novel by John L. Parker.

The Summer Book by Tove Jansson | Waterstones The Summer Book by Tove Jansson | Waterstones

So began the journey. Categorically learning about distribution, print houses, and sales channels. Cover design, interior design, eBook creation, and the works. Marketing, advertising, building networks, and finding endorsements. At every turn, the golden standard was professionalism. The New York Review of Books writes that Jansson's characters, the girl and her grandmother, "discuss things that matter to young and old alike: life, death, the nature of God and of love." [4] It's like a watercolor of only four or five easy strokes, that you can't help but stare at for hours. It was perfect, actually, as this is a story about wildness, both the wildness of living on a small island in the Gulf of Finland and the wildness of living with fewer social conventions and conveniences. Tove Jansson distills the essence of the summer – its sunlight and storms – into twenty-two crystalline vignettes. This brief novel tells the story of Sophia, a six-year-old girl awakening to existence, and Sophia’s grandmother, nearing the end of her’s, as they spend the summer on a tiny unspoiled island in the Gulf of Finland ... Jansson creates her own complete world, full of the varied joys and sorrows of life.’ Robert MacFarlane

As I read this book, it is the dead of winter here in Calgary. It was lovely to imagine being on an island where the sun is shining (except for when it stormed). There's a father in the story, though he never bores us with anything he has to say, and a sexy, loner neighbor named Eriksson who I hoped to God looked like this: Eriksson was small and strong and the colour of the landscape, except that his eyes were blue. When people talked about him or thought about him, it seemed natural to lift their heads and gaze out over the sea […. A]s long as he stayed, he had everyone's undivided attention. No one did anything, no one looked at anything but Eriksson. They would hang on his every word, and when he was gone and nothing had actually been said, their thoughts would dwell gravely on what he had left unspoken.

The Summer Book by Tove Jansson turns 50 years - Moomin The Summer Book by Tove Jansson turns 50 years - Moomin

The importance of the few things you have around you on an island. The colour reproduction of the hermit and the lion on the wall, Father's huge and amazing robe, the driftwood, bones, flotsam and jetsam, all become very important. In The Summer Book Tove Jansson distills the essence of the summer—its sunlight and storms—into twenty-two crystalline vignettes. This brief novel tells the story of Sophia, a six-year-old girl awakening to existence, and Sophia’s grandmother, nearing the end of hers, as they spend the summer on a tiny unspoiled island in the Gulf of Finland. The grandmother is unsentimental and wise, if a little cranky; Sophia is impetuous and volatile, but she tends to her grandmother with the care of a new parent. Together they amble over coastline and forest in easy companionship, build boats from bark, create a miniature Venice, write a fanciful study of local bugs. They discuss things that matter to young and old alike: life, death, the nature of God and of love. “On an island,” thinks the grandmother, “everything is complete.” In The Summer Book, Jansson creates her own complete world, full of the varied joys and sorrows of life. In this little novella, we get to experience the relationship of a grandmother and her 6 year old grand daughter who get to spend an entire summer on an island off the coast of Finland. Nature plays a tremendous role in their lives and naturally, they use it to create some very special moments together. These two are such grouches at times and each of them believes she is right and knows what she is talking about often. Sometimes I wondered who was the adult and who was the child! They love each other but they grumble and yet, they can have serious conversations. They talk and learn and often it’s about the tough stuff like what love is, how to pray to God, what Heaven looks like, and when are we going to die. But they have fun, too, learning how to carve animals from branches for their magic forest and talking about what different birds represent. These two take care of each other in their own ways while having fun creating adventures and making up stories.

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An elderly woman and her six-year-old granddaughter Sophia spend a summer together on a tiny island in the Gulf of Finland exploring, talking about life, nature, everything but their feelings about Sophia's mother's death and their love for one another. [1] Reception [ edit ] His family of two boys, Jonathan and Henry, and his beloved wife Lili, impassion his craving for adventure. An adventurous spirit which is passed down to his sons. Now living with his family in Minden, Germany, in the pre-dawn hours, he is an author. An island is one of the few places on earth where it is possible to create your own world, and Jansson manages to build a small universe where old and young, danger and beauty, real life and imagination coexist in perfect balance, feeding on each other’s experiences, making everything new yet cosily familiar at the same time to the astonished reader.