''Fair Play'' (in 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 ...

''Rent spel'') is a

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

by Finnish author Tove Jansson, first published in 1989.

Plot

The novel portrays the romantic relationship between two women doing artistic work, Jonna and Mari, who live in separate apartments in the same house (alluding to Jansson's relationship with Tuulikki Peitila). They are in many ways quite different, but maybe because of this they are able to complete each other. It is about give and take, compromises and communication, and how the relationship survives even if it changes when the people do. Many chapters in the book are written such that they can be read stand-alone, and a few have been republished in the short story collection ''

A Winter Book A Winter Book is a collection of twenty short stories by Finnish author Tove Jansson, published by Sort of Books in 2006. The stories, some of which had not previously been published in English, were selected by Ali Smith, who also wrote the b ...

''.

References

1989 novels 20th-century Finnish novels Swedish-language novels NYRB Classics {{1980s-novel-stub