By the Book-A Meant to Be Novel

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The images are startlingly intimate, with Hameline floating effortlessly inside his bedroom, unencumbered by any expectation of what the final image may be.

It's, well, a book, indeed, I can commit myself further and say that it is a Summer book, easy, and lazy, and hazy, the days are long and seem never to end, the weather is fine - until it isn't, and the world is in bloom, even on the Aland Islands off the coast of Finland. Emma Smith’s biography begins with the story of its first purchaser in London in December 1623, and goes on to explore the ways people have interacted with this iconic book over the four hundred years since. My post is a little late due to end of the academic year, (sorry Dave) however, I read this book in 2 days last week and I loved every second of it. Amidst the joyful effervescence of summer are the grim realities of mortal lives that must interact with one another. It seemed to her no other creature had the same dramatic capacity to underline and perfect events – the shifts in the seasons and the weather, the changes that run through people themselves.She’s also adept at conveying the pace and rhythm of island life with its well-honed routines and seasonal rituals - not surprising since it’s based on Klovharu a place she visited for over 30 years and where she built a summer cabin. The tension and history between Nora and Derek made for a gripping start to the book, and reading it all fall into place pushed me to power through the book in a single sitting. Sophia often flies into an angry rage, often irritated that the world doesn’t fit her idea of how it should be, and has a fierce need to test boundaries and assert her independence and identity, whereas the grandmother is cantankerous and rather unsentimental. Perhaps part of the attraction is that in DE Stevenson’s novels these rules comfortingly still apply. It is a quiet little book that that only hints at the powerful undercurrents that charge the events that transpire.

One tiny island in the gulf of Finland comes to represent a complete world full of miracle and mystery, safety and danger as we are swept happily along through the adventures of a feisty, indomitable little girl and her refreshingly different grandmother. A wonderful consistency in usage of words like "nice" and "pretty," words that should be used more often. Sometimes Jansson’s depiction of her male characters seems to anticipate elements of ecofeminism; just as other aspects of her story, especially her keen awareness of the fragility of wild things and the delicate balance required to sustain them, give this a distinctly eco-fictional flavour.I read a good portion of this Scandinavian classic as Hurricane Ian hurled heavy branches at our house and tangled himself up in the arms of the city's power lines, knocking out our electricity for hours. 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.