A Winter Book is a collection of twenty short stories by Finnish author Tove Jansson, published by

Sort of Books Sort of Books is an independent British publishing house started in 1999 by Mark Ellingham and Natania Jansz, founders of the Rough Guides travel series. The company publishes both original and classic fiction and non-fiction titles: "The sort of ...

in 2006. The stories, some of which had not previously been published in English, were selected by

Ali Smith Ali Smith CBE FRSL (born 24 August 1962) is a Scottish author, playwright, academic and journalist. Sebastian Barry described her in 2016 as "Scotland's Nobel laureate-in-waiting". Early life and education Smith was born in Inverness on 24 Au ...

, who also wrote the book's introduction and had previously reviewed ''

The Summer Book ''The Summer Book'' (in the original Swedish, ''Sommarboken'') is a book written by Finnish author Tove Jansson in 1972. Plot An elderly woman and her six-year-old granddaughter Sophia spend a summer together on a tiny island in the Gulf of Fin ...

'' for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''. Thirteen of them are from Jansson's first book for adults, '' Sculptor's Daughter'' (1968), and the remaining seven are from four of her other works. Five were included in her 1998 Swedish language collection ''Messages'' (''Meddelande''), including the title piece, a partially fictionalised compilation of letters Jansson had received. They were translated into English from the original

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

by Silvester Mazzarella, David McDuff and Kingsley Hart. In a review for ''

'', Josh Lacey described it as a "short, brittle book" and "an oddly satisfying jumble" featuring several of Jansson's recurring tropes: "strange creatures with surprising powers, islands and small boats and the sea, loneliness and introspection, the vital influence of art and the imagination". Sean Michaels for '' The Skinny'' said it was "in large part exceptional". Philip Pullman described the stories as "tough as old rope" in the afterword he wrote for the book. Stories in ''A Winter Book'' include "Squirrel", in which a woman's isolated life on an island is shared for a time with a

squirrel Squirrels are members of the family Sciuridae, a family that includes small or medium-size rodents. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels (including chipmunks and prairie dogs, among others), and flying squirrels. Squ ...

, and the last story, "Taking Leave", in which two women realise that they have become too frail to spend their summers on the island they love.

''A Winter Book'' is arranged in three sections, "Snow", "Flotsam and Jetsam" and "Travelling Light". Introduction by Ali Smith Snow * "The Stone" (from ''Sculptor's Daughter'' (''Bildhuggarens dotter'')) * "Parties" (from ''Sculptor's Daughter'') * "The Dark" (from ''Sculptor's Daughter'') * "Snow" (from ''Sculptor's Daughter'') * "German Measles" (from ''Sculptor's Daughter'') * "Flying" (from ''Sculptor's Daughter'') * "Annie" (from ''Sculptor's Daughter'') Flotsam and Jetsam * "The Iceberg" (from ''Sculptor's Daughter'') * "Albert" (from ''Sculptor's Daughter'') * "Flotsam and Jetsam" (from ''Sculptor's Daughter'') * "High Water" (from ''Sculptor's Daughter'') * Jeremiah (from ''Sculptor's Daughter'') * "The Spinster Who Had an Idea" (from ''Sculptor's Daughter'') * "The Boat and Me" (from ''Messages'' (''Meddelande'')) Travelling Light * "The Squirrel" (from ''The Listener'' (''Lyssnerskan''), included in ''Messages'') * "Letters from Klara" (from ''Letters from Klara'' (''Brev från Klara''), included in ''Messages'') * "Messages" (from ''Messages'') * "Correspondence" (from ''Travelling Light'' (''Resa med lätt bagage'')) * "Travelling Light" (from ''Travelling Light'', included in ''Messages'') * "Taking Leave" (extract from ''Notes from an Island'' (''Anteckningar från en ö '')) Afterword by Philip Pullman

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Further reading