Tove Jansson- The Summer Book

Too many books are about nothing. Here, nothing ever happens but summer, yet reading the summer book I find myself wishing for even less story, even less happening. Something like the essence of literature is found in this slim volume, written by a career cartoonist. The non-plot is about a young girl living with her grandmother on a tiny island somewhere in Scandinavia.

Sofia asked her grandmother what Heaven looked like and grandmother said it might be like the pasture they were just then walking by on the way to the village. They stopped to look. It was very hot, the road was white and cracked and all the plants along the ditch had dust on their leaves. They walked to the pasture and sat down in the grass which was tall and not a bit dusty it was full of bluebells and coltsfoots and buttercups.

“Are there ants in Heaven?” asked Sophia.

“No” said grandmother as she laid down carefully on her back.