Read-along – The Summer Book (2 of 2)
The second half – and Sophia
Dear classics readers,
We’ve finished The Summer Book. What did you think? Please do share your thoughts in a comment below. Here are mine:
In 2022, Jansson’s UK publisher, Sort Of Books, marked the fiftieth anniversary of The Summer Book by releasing an anniversary edition, which includes a new afterword by Sophia Jansson, Tove’s niece and the model for Sophia in the novel.
Sophia’s afterword is a beautiful piece about becoming a grandmother herself, during Covid, when she was able to use the island as a means of meeting her own granddaughter for the first time. She writes beautifully about the island:
The soles of my feet know every stone, rock, path or surface to be found there. My ears find rest in the call of the birds, and I long for the sound of the wind and the waves sweeping the island in their embrace. My eyes recognise every feature of the horizon, and I needn’t even open them to sense the wonderful view. It is a world unto its own, where I feel at peace. In Finnish you say that your blood pulls you somewhere, meaning that you have a deep affinity to a particular place. That’s how I feel about this island. I’m pulled there.
And she includes this wonderful answer to the question of how closely the book resembles reality:
One book I’ve no need to bring is The Summer Book as there is always a copy here. It was published when I was ten years old, nearly two years after my grandmother was rushed from the island to the hospital in Borgå, where she died peacefully with Tove and Lasse beside her. Out of all her books, Tove said The Summer Book was her favourite, and thought it better than the others. Perhaps this was because she succeeded in capturing the spirit of her beloved mother, Ham, allowing her to live on in its pages. It is also my favourite, though my relationship with the book is more complex.
Because my name is Sophia, and my grandmother Ham, people often ask me if I am Sophia, the child in The Summer Book. I answer evasively, ‘No and yes’. The book is a novel, I remind them, a work of fiction. Ideas and descriptions might be drawn from life, but they are distilled through the imagination of Tove. Perhaps I point this out to protect myself, rather than reveal how private and real the book feels to me. Tove herself, when asked the same question, simply answered that one third of the book was based on her niece, one third on her own childhood and one third was made up. She refused to go into detail about any of her stories, preferring to let readers make up their own minds about them. And yet, as with all classic books, the characters and predicaments of The Summer Book ring with truth.
Here is a video of Sophia Jansson, talking a little more about the anniversary edition:
And if you’re not ready to leave the skerries of the Gulf of Finland quite yet, look out for the new film adaptation of The Summer Book, directed by Charlie McDowell and starring Glenn Close, which premiered at the BFI London Film Festival last October.
Here’s the trailer:
The film gets a positive write-up in Variety. It was released in Finnish cinemas in January this year and is due to be released in the USA next month (September 19th). I’m hoping for a UK release soon!
It’s been a pleasure reading The Summer Book with you.
Join me in two weeks’ time when we start our September read-along: we will be reading The Trial by Franz Kafka over three weeks.
Here are details about changes to the format of Read the Classics that will start in September. If you would like to continue the monthly read-alongs, but can’t afford a paid subscription, please just let me know and I’ll send you a gift subscription.
And here are links to our previous The Summer Book posts:
The Schedule (14 July)
Tove Jansson (28 July)
0. Grandmother (8 August)
1. The first half – and the Magic Forest (15 August)
I commented on this book some weeks ago, so I don't wish to take over, but once again, The summer book moved me to tears of joy and poignancy and awe. Having been brought up by my grandmother, I relate to the story on so many levels as well as feeling transported to that magical, powerful island. It is a gem!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this wonderful book! I caught the film adaptation at a film festival a few weeks ago, and I have to say, I was not a fan. It was visually stunning—the Gulf of Finland setting looked absolutely gorgeous—but it lacked the subtlety of the book. The characters’ grief over the mother’s death was placed front and center and made much more explicit. Grief is certainly there in the book, but there are other layers of emotion: mischievousness and curiosity and joy. In comparison, the film felt heavy-handed and overwrought.
However, the film was shown as a double feature with the biopic “Tove,” and I adored that film. Not just a good biopic, but a good movie, full stop.