Moominvalley in November
As autumn is turning into winter, a group of visitors are waiting to see the Moomin family. Finding that the Moomins are not at home, the guests settle down to wait for them and suddenly find new ways to relate to each other. For Moominvalley is Moominvalley still, even without the Moomins in it.
Moominvalley in November is a quiet and melancholic book. The central characters of Moominvalley, the Moomin family, are absent – a very bold choice for a writer who was at the height of her popularity in 1970, when the book was published.
The last, most profound and elegiac of Tove Jansson’s Moomin novels, Moominvalley in November is a gentle farewell to Moominvalley in the last story of all.
In Moominvalley in November, the Moomins are missing. They have left their beloved Moominvalley – for the mysterious lighthouse island of Moominpappa at Sea – and no one has seen them since. As winter draws near, Snufkin, Mymble, Toft and others move into the Moominhouse to await the family’s return and soon find themselves absorbed in exploits of their own. Only little Toft lingers on. The gentle creature has seen a flicker of light on the horizon.
Could this be the Moomins sailing back?
Moominvalley in November, the final novel in the series, was published in 1970 and serves as a beautiful and deeply subtle valediction to the world of the Moomins.
info
Year of publication
1970
Original title
Sent i november
Page count
205
Original language of publication
Swedish
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Quote
“When the Hemulen got to the valley it was filled with a fine, drizzling rain. He walked straight into the garden and stopped, with a puzzled look on his face. Something wasn’t right. Everything was the same but somehow not the same. A withered leaf floated down and landed on his nose. How silly, the Hemulen exclaimed. It’s not summer at all. It’s autumn! In some way or another he had always thought of Moominvalley in summer.”