Notes from an Island and The Island by Tove Jansson translated by Thomas Teal

 Notes from an Island and The Island  

by Tove Jansson with paintings by Tuulikki Pietilä translated by Thomas Teal is a new book released by Timber Press. Oh, everyone fell in love for the books by Tove Jansson. 

In this one, so interesting, there is her existence spent in the island she had chosen with the partner for more than 20 years. 

Tove Jansson was born in 1914 in Finland, when the country was still under the Russian Empire, dying at 87 years in an independent country. She was part of a creative family. Her mother was an illustrator and her father a sculpture.

In 1945 as answer to the last World War that left her paralyzed in her ability as a painter, she created this first book of the Moomin, that nice family-trolls that we started to know so well when we were little, and adults, as well :-)

Oh, it was wonderful! Thanks to this first success she obtained a work in a newspaper as cartoonist. She worked at the Moomin till at 1959 when she left it to her brother. Tove had three careers: one as children's book writer and illustrator, another one as a painter and the third one as author of literary novels. Although she spaced in different fields, she has been exceptional everywhere.

Her husband, Tuulikki Pietilä is called in this book Tooti. They lived in peace in their island of Klovharun.

They decided to start to live in an island, something that the couple did for more than 20 years, in 1963. They built a cabin with the help of a local. To them living in an island meant  living in solitude although Tove had previously appreciated other situations involving islands in her existence. 

Their life was pretty wild and they adored it! They searched for fish, they search for wood, they lived in strong connection with nature: for example, apart for their boat called Victoria, an essential tool of their existence, they loved to sleep  in a tent, close to their cabin, sometimes leaving the main house, let's call in this way the cabin, for their numerous guests from the city where Tove was born, Helsinky. They spent magical moments in the wild but in the mid '70s, they understood that maybe it was also better to keep something more human close to them for being able to reach someone in case they needed some help. In 1991 they decided to donate their cabin to local hunters abandoning the island without any other return. 

This book, Notes from an island, was put together by Tove after 4 years, from their traumatic decision of abandoning that island, she had loved so badly. Her husband in the while in the mid '70s had done several drawings of the island. 

There are passionate entires that Tove give us back. Memories, of their dream of a cabin, the way they dreamed it.

Tove describes her life in the island: "I don’t know how it happened, but life became very simple and I just let myself be happy. Tooti cut a hole in the ice for our garbage. We grew quieter and quieter and went about our daily chores as if we’d each been there alone. It felt very relaxed".

They assisted at strong natural phaenomenons, and they also organized a special birthday for her granny of 83 years. 

They haven't never been too abandoned. When there were tempests or situations appeared to be critical, an helpicopter afforded to the area for trying to understand if they were OK. 

Tove writes down some lines in one of the entries on living in an island: " It’s possible that living with one other person makes you quiet, at least on an island. The things you say are mostly just about everyday stuff, and if the everyday goes normally you say even less".

One day she imagined someone looking into their house seeing "The tranquil picture of two people sitting opposite each other at the table with the lamp, each of them doing her own work without the need to say a word".

Leaving an island: "There is a delicate balance between the absolute calm of arrival and the stress of departure".

In An Island the last essay by Tove, that place means freedom: " You walk around your island. No one can come, no one needs to go, you feel completely at ease. The clocks stopped quite a while ago and it’s a long time since you wore shoes. Your feet find their own way; confident and independent, they’ve grown as sensuous as hands".

Highly recommended book! 

Maria Polidori