Finnish writer, artist, and political cartoonist Tove Jansson (1914–2001) is best known for her books about the Moomins, adventurous, amusing cartoon trolls who had much in common with their bohemian, nature-loving author and, it seems, shared many of her family’s traits. She is also the author of eleven novels and short-story collections for adults, including The Summer Book and The True Deceiver. Boel Westin is professor of literature at Stockholm University and author of the biography Tove Jansson: Life, Words, Art. She is chairman of jury for the world’s largest children’s literature prize, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. Helen Svensson was a literary manager at Schildts Forlag Publishers for thirty years where she was Jansson’s last editor. Sarah Death is a prizewinning literary translator, mainly from Swedish, with some forty translated titles to her name.
Reading these letters, you will gradually fall under the illusion that they are addressed to you. This is how inviting, candid, and quietly dazzling Tove Jansson's prose is in her correspondence. Letters from Tove is a fundamental addition to Jansson's oeuvre. At the end of the book, you will feel that you have a new, very close friend. -Hernan Diaz, author of In the Distance Tove Jansson was a genius, a woman of profound wisdom and great artistry. -Philip Pullman It's hard to describe the astonishing achievement of Jansson's artistry. -Ali Smith Tove Jansson is one of the greatest children's writers there has ever been. -Sir Terry Pratchett Witty, shrewd, and hugely entertaining. -The Spectator Treasures aplenty-cultural history gems as well as biographical revelations, all related in a voice that's funny, gracious, intimate. -The Guardian Offers readers the privilege of spending time inside an intelligent, creative, curious, generous, funny, unsentimental mind. -The Irish Times