Moominpappa's Memoirs

by Tove Jansson

Paperback

Published April 1, 2010

About the author

Tove Jansson was born and died in Helsinki, Finland. As a Finnish citizen whose mother tongue was Swedish, she was part of the Swedish-speaking Finns minority. Thus, all her books were originally written in Swedish.

Although known first and foremost as an author, Tove Jansson considered her careers as author and painter to be of equal importance.

Tove Jansson wrote and illustrated her first Moomin book, The Moomins and the Great Flood (1945), during World War II. She said later that the war had depressed her, and she had wanted to write something naive and innocent. Besides the Moomin novels and short stories, Tove Jansson also wrote and illustrated four original and highly popular picture books.

Jansson's Moomin books have been translated into 33 languages.

Reviews

[Irene Rajarigam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charming, as always

[Jerstyn Morehay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prequel, Moomin-style, which means by the end it's not so much a beginning as a seamless continuation. Moominpappa sits down with memoir-pen in hand to really get serious about recounting his earliest adventures, during which we learn about his being raised in a foundling's home by the Hemulen's aunt, running away and befriending the great inventor and world navigator Hodgkins, and learn the mysterious parentage of Snufkin and Sniff. The only thing we don't really learn is the origin of Moominpappa's hat, which we might assume came his way during his wild days of subsequent dissipation with the Hattifatteners, which probably isn't fit for the ears of children. A delight.