An NYRB Classics Original

Tove Jansson excelled at the brief tale, writing stories that in their short spans unfold to reveal entire worlds. This is true of her internationally syndicated cartoon strip about a family of hippo-like creatures, the Moomins; of her beloved Moomin novels; and of her best-selling books for adults, like The Summer Book. Until now, however, Jansson’s short stories have been nearly impossible to find in the United States. This volume brings together, for the first time in English, a generous selection of stories from the most fruitful period of her career, from her earliest collected stories, dating from the early 1970s, to her mature work, written not long before her death in 2001. In them are moments of the sublime and the mundane, as well as small heroisms and large griefs. Unsentimental, yet kind and humane, Jansson’s short stories complement and enlarge our understanding of a giant of world literature.

Tove Jansson (1914–2001) was born in Helsinki, attended art schools in Stockholm and Paris, and upon her return to Finland in the late 1940s won acclaim for her paintings and murals. It was in the left-leaning anti-Fascist Finnish-Swedish magazine Garm where her most famous creation, Moomintroll, made his first appearance. Jansson also wrote eleven novels and short-story collections for adults, including The Summer Book, The True Deceiver, and Fair Play (available as NYRB Classics).

Lauren Groff is a novelist and short story writer. Her books include The Monsters of Templeton, Delicate Edible Birds, and, most recently, Arcadia. She lives in Gainesville, Florida.

Thomas Teal has translated Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book, The True Deceiver, and Fair Play for which he was awarded the Bernard Shaw Prize for Translation from the Swedish in 2009. He lives in Massachusetts.

Silvester Mazzarella is a translator of Italian and Swedish literature and has taught at the University of Helsinki. He lives in the United Kingdom.