Notes from an Island

by Tove Jansson, Alexander Chee Narrated by Orlagh Cassidy

Overview

From a renowned artist and writer, a deeply personal nature journal that includes sketches from her romantic partner, artist Tuulikki “Tooti” Pietilä.

In the bitter winds of autumn 1963, Tove Jansson, helped by Brunström, a maverick fisherman, raced to build a cabin on a treeless island in the Gulf of Finland. The island was Klovharun, where for thirty summers Tove and her beloved partner, the visual artist, Tuulikki “Tooti” Pietilä, lived, painted, and wrote, energized by the solitude and shifting seascapes. The island's flora, fauna, and weather patterns provided deep inspiration which can be seen reflected in all of Jansson's work, most famously in her bestselling novel The Summer Book and her longstanding comic strip and novels for children, Moomin. Tove's signature spare, quirky prose, and Tooti's subtle ink washes and aquatints combine to form a work of meditative beauty, a chronicle of living peacefully in nature and observing the island's ecology and character. Notes from an Island is both a work of artistic collaboration and an homage to the deep love the two women shared. One feels as if Jansson's journal, with Tooti's sketches tucked inside, has been unearthed like a treasure from under a pile of old quilts in the back of their rustic cabin.

Includes a companion PDF of images from the print edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"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."—Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel

“Both a memoir and a love letter to all things wild and weathered.”—New Statesman

“These wry, winsome autobiographical sketches demonstrate the couple’s virtuosity in the art of living...as evocative as a long-lost coastline glimpsed through mist.” —Times Literary Supplement

“A pleasure for Jansson’s many fans, and a lovely memoir of hardscrabble island life.” —Kirkus

"This elegantly produced book began as a collection of etchings and drawings done by Pietilä, accompanied now by the diary entries, notes, and correspondence the author…Jansson brings to life the flora and fauna of their remote home, along with the struggles of living in such an enchanted but storm-battered and fog-enshrouded place. Notes from an Island is a gem." —Air Mail

“Like the books featuring her beloved Moomins, the nature journal Notes from an Island by Tove Jansson moves fluidly between modes, alternating between tones of detached humor and earnest poignancy. This beautiful volume represents the most transparent collaboration between Jansson…and her partner in life and art, Tuulikki Pietilä”—Shelf Awareness

“Notes from an Island is a sweeping, meditative exploration of time spent in nature.” —BookPage

NOVEMBER 2024 - AudioFile

In 1963, Tove Jansson built a cabin on Klovharun, a tiny, rugged island in the Gulf of Finland, with the help of a fisherman named Brunstrom. Narrator Orlagh Cassidy takes a minimalist approach to her narration, enunciating precisely and adopting a slow pace as she recounts Brunstrom's notes on building the cabin, the island's weather, and Jansson's and her partner Tuuti's daily routines during the 26 summers they spent there. Though Cassidy's narration is spare, she is emotive as she describes life at the cabin the couple loved. A bonus pdf is included with the print book's illustrations of the island by Tuuti, who was a graphic artist, as well as black-and-white photographs. S.E.G. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2024-09-14
The renowned Finnish author returns to the Baltic archipelago that formed the setting for her 1972 novelThe Summer Book.

As in her novel, Jansson grew up with a spirited grandmother who wasn’t shy of doing hard work and draining a beer when it was done. Here Jansson (1914–2001), author of the beloved Moomin series of children’s books, moves a few islands farther away from shore, arriving at a “fierce little skerry” called Klovharun. Whereas Jansson had shared the earlier island with her grandmother, mother (“Ham,” for her maiden name, Hammarsten), and brother, here she makes a home on Klovharun with the woman who will be her life companion, Tuulikki (“Tooti”) Pietilä. An accomplished graphic artist—her abstract work punctuates these pages—Tooti is never short of opinions, telling Jansson, “Well, for once you could stick to the facts a little.” The facts are abundant, as Jansson describes dynamiting out a basement for the essentially illegal house that she and Tooti build, assured by a bureaucrat-hating friend that “the law says that no building can be torn down if the builder has framed as high as the roof beam.” That’s good incentive, given that winter is fast approaching. One of Jansson’s great realizations is that they are mere guests on this difficult land of black rock and white sand and snow, that nothing they can build will ever last. (Says Ham, wearily, of Baltic weather reports, “All the facts and statistics are idiotic, because the sea does precisely whatever it wants.”) Aging as the years pass, Jansson and Tooti return to the city, but not before seeding their little island house with delightful notes (“Don’t close the damper, it will rust shut”) for the next person to come along.

A pleasure for Jansson’s many fans, and a lovely memoir of hardscrabble island life.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940192818503
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	10/22/2024
Edition description:	Unabridged

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