Notes from an Island
Tove Jansson
Tuulikki Pietila
14 €
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Coup de coeur
(Nature), by Flora
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.
In the bitter winds of autumn 1963, Tove Jansson, helped by Brunström, a maverick fisherman, raced to build a cabin on a treeless skerry in the Gulf of Finland. The island was Klovharun, and for thirty summers Tove and her beloved partner, the graphic artist, Tuulikki Pietilä, retreated there to live, paint and write, energised by the solitude and shifting seascapes.Notes from an Island, published in English for the first time, is both a chronicle of this period and a homage to the mature love that Tove and 'Tooti' shared for their island and for each other. Tove's spare prose, and Tuulikki's subtle washes and aquatints combine to form a work of meditative beauty.'... Tooti wandered aimlessly around the island and stood stock still for long periods. I thought I knew what she was doing. She was working again. Copperplate etchings and wash drawings. Mostly the lagoon, the lagoon as a consummate mirror for clouds and birds, the lagoon in a storm, in fog. And the granite, first and foremost, the granite, the cliff, the rocks. It's all peace and quiet now.'
Translated by Thomas Teal
Publisher: Sort of Books
Binding: Paperback
Publication date: 23 May 2024
Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 129 mm
ISBN: 9781908745941
