Book Review: A Winter Book by Tove Jansson

“Last summer something unforgivable happened. I became afraid of the sea. Large waves were no longer connected with adventure, only anxiety and responsibility for the boat, and indeed all boats that ply the sea in bad weather. It wasn’t fair; even in my worst dreams the sea had always been an unfailing deliverance: the danger was after you, but you hopped in and sailed away and were safe and never returned. That fear felt like a betrayal- my own.” – Tove Jansson, ‘Taking Leave’ A Winter Book is a collection of short stories for adults written by Finnish writer Tove Jansson, known as the creator of the Moomins. It’s a beautifully produced book, with textured paper and a soft dust jacket and accompanying photographs of Jansson in her native Finland. The collection of stories has been selected and introduced by Ali Smith, and are on the theme of winter. They are deceptively simple stories, the first half being told from a child’s perspective, and the latter from an adults. The collection is varied and comes to a close with correspondence from Jansson to fans of the Moomins. The stories focus on incidents in Jansson’s life, most seemingly innocuous, but when examined a little closer, reveal universal concerns about nature, life, art, hope and aging. The stories are deceptively simple and focus on description, and hold back on any attempt to analyse their contents. The stories require the reader to search between the lines and think about what is not being said in order to gain a full analysis of the stories’ fullest depths.

The title of the collection is ‘A Winter Book’, and therefore many stories feature Finland in the colder months. It can be hard for a landlocked non-island dweller to relate to the Scandinavian island lifestyle portrayed in the collection. The sea as a feared and unpredictable danger is not portrayed as such in A Winter Book. In Jansson’s Finland the sea is as steadfast as land in that it is not just part of life, but it is life, and children playing on rafts and in boats is as usual as children walking to the park unaccompanied.

My favourite story in the collection was ‘Parties’. Despite its questionable gender roles, it is a telling perspective into a child’s understanding of adult parties (“I know a lot that I don’t talk about”), complete with music, hangovers and fry-ups, much in the tradition of Henry James’ ‘What Maisie Knew’. My least favourite story, though popular with many readers, was the longer story ‘The Squirrel’, featuring an older woman living alone on an island, who encounters a lone squirrel, a invasion that goes on to disturb her daily routine until the time of its departure. The woman becomes obsessed with the squirrel and by observing her thought process the reader can feel as if they are experiencing degeneration into madness brought on by loneliness and perhaps old age.

A Winter Book is a mixed bag of stories, and not always coherent in narrative and theme, but is a nice addition for fans of Jansson’s work. It would make a lovely gift for those who are a fan of short stories, stories of the sea, or stories told from a child’s perspective.

Rating: 3/5. Buy the book: Paperback. Follow me: Goodreads / Twitter / Bloglovin