{"product_id":"the-summer-book","title":"The Summer Book","description":"\u003cb\u003eNow a major motion picture starring Glenn Close and directed by Charlie McDowell\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Summer Book\u003c\/i\u003e Tove Jansson distills the essence of the summer--its sunlight and storms--into twenty-two crystalline vignettes. This brief novel tells the story of Sophia, a six-year-old girl awakening to existence, and Sophia's grandmother, nearing the end of hers, as they spend the summer on a tiny unspoiled island in the Gulf of Finland. The grandmother is unsentimental and wise, if a little cranky; Sophia is impetuous and volatile, but she tends to her grandmother with the care of a new parent. Together they amble over coastline and forest in easy companionship, build boats from bark, create a miniature Venice, write a fanciful study of local bugs. They discuss things that matter to young and old alike: life, death, the nature of God and of love. \"On an island,\" thinks the grandmother, \"everything is complete.\" In \u003ci\u003eThe Summer Book\u003c\/i\u003e, Jansson creates her own complete world, full of the varied joys and sorrows of life. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTove Jansson, whose Moomintroll comic strip and books brought her international acclaim, lived for much of her life on an island like the one described in \u003ci\u003eThe Summer Book\u003c\/i\u003e, and the work can be enjoyed as her closely observed journal of the sounds, sights, and feel of a summer spent in intimate contact with the natural world. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Summer Book\u003c\/i\u003e is translated from the Swedish by Thomas Teal.","brand":"New York Review of Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51850531471591,"sku":"9781590172681","price":15.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0449\/4075\/5096\/files\/imageloader_a492f55b-bb38-4389-bc60-4e983d40f0ee.jpg?v=1773097640","url":"https:\/\/arvidabookco.com\/products\/the-summer-book","provider":"Arvida Book Co.","version":"1.0","type":"link"}