Notes from an Island
These observations, taken from the island of Klovharun and illustrated by Tuulikki Pietilä, cover all aspects of Tove’s and Tuulikki’s time in the Finnish archipelago – including their eventual decision to stop spending summers on the island.
info
Year of publication
1996
Original title
Anteckningar från en ö
Page count
103
Original publisher
-
Reviews
Herold Magazine
"The book is above all a hymn to the unstoppable forces of the sea and the weather that acknowledges our precarious grip on the planet we claim to own"
Susie Mesure - I News UK
"There are few people more masterful at making the mundane magical than Tove Jansson. The book is part memoir, part inspiration for living: in isolation, through choice, with only seabirds, a per cat and her partner for company. And, of course, the island itself, a character in its own right".
Nancy Campbell, Times Literary Supplement
About Tuulikki Pietilä's illustrations: "These wry and winsome autobiographical sketches demonstrate the couple's virtuosity in the art of living...as evocative as a long-lost coastline glimpsed through mist".
Coup de cœur by Flora, Shakespeare and Company Bookshop
"This book is an absolute gem. Tove (the creator of the Moomins) and her partner Tooti (an artist) built themselves a holiday retreat on a remote Finnish island. Despite its inhospitable aspect, and being miles from other people, they adored their island. This is their diary of their time there - told through Tove's writing and Tooti's paintings. It's an escapist adventure and an insight into Finnish natural history - a joyful book in which to lose yourself."
New Statesman
“Both a memoir and a love letter to all things wild and weathered.”
Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
"If you never see me again in life after this book is published, it is because I left to find an island of my own at last."
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