Changes

Tove Jansson's short novel about Summer is several worlds away from the Moomintrolls she is most famous for outside her native Scandinavia. Book yourself an afternoon this Summer, and take yourself and The Summer Book somewhere quiet, preferably within sight and sound of the sea, settle back and prepare to be transported.

An island in the Gulf of Finland.

Sophia – 6 years old when she "woke up and remembered that they had come back to the island and that she had a bed to herself because her mother was dead".

Grandmother – who really was born in the 1800s and who will die "quite soon"

These are the main characters in The Summer Book. There are others who pass through briefly, or who, like Papa, always working at his desk or putting out or taking in the nets, are "there". His being there is clearly far more important than anything he might do. This is the one clue we get to the fact that Sophia feels the loss of her mother.