When I was a child and read Tove Jansson's evocative and adventurous tale of how a comet threatens the Moomins and their valley (Comet in Moominland, although I actually read it in German), I was rather annoyed and frustrated with and by the fact that while there were all these textual allusions and hints at the beginning of Comet in Moominland of there having previously been a massive flooding, the novel where this so-called Great Flood occurs had never been translated from its original Swedish (finally remedied in 2006 with this here English language translation by David McDuff).
And after now after having read The Moomins and the Great Flood, I can certainly and very much understand why this novel (which is considered the first Moomin tale and was orignally published in 1945, and was also for decades out of print even in its Swedish original), has only recently been translated (the simple fact being that although author and illustrator Tove Jansson's accompanying pictorial images are indeed glowingly descriptive, esoteric and for all intents and purposes wonderful, the actual text, the actual featured narrative, the story of The Moomins and the Great Flood is simply, is just not in any way en par with the other Moomin novels). For the text feels majorly choppy, uneven and often so bare bones that one might almost assume one is reading more of an outline of a novel than an actual and finished, polished end product. I mean, we as readers never really do manage to obtain all that much knowledge and information as to exactly why Moominpapa has ended up being missing. Yes, he has seemingly abandoned his family (his wife and young son) to travel with the Hatifatners, but no detailed and specific reasons as to why are ever really textually given. And even the Great Flood itself is at least in my opinion rather a non event, is presented by Jansson as being there, being a presence, but with only scant description and portrayal (which also and indeed seems to be the case with almost all of the diverse episodes of The Moomins and the Great Flood, the featured and presented nuggets of detail and of even storytelling charm, pieces of information that seem important for a short while but then like a flame, sputtering out, failing to coalesce into a harmonious whole).
And thus, while I do appreciate finally having had the opportunity to read, to experience Tove Jansson's very first Moomin book and cheer the fact that her The Moomins and the Great Flood was in 2006 translated from the original Swedish into English (as well as subsequently into other languages), is again in print and as available as the rest of the Moomin series (since it does in fact clean up some loose ends and presents how the Moomins originally reach their valley, and also how they meet and in many ways become saddled with the intriguing and sometimes a trifle frustrating kangaroo-like creature who in the later Moomin novels is known as Sniff), I still have found The Moomins and the Great Flood only rather very mildly amusing and entertaining at best, and the novel's general writing style, its textual authorial presentation too scattered, too unfinished and too unpolished to be considered with more than two stars (and leave the truth and caveat that the sequels are definitely much superior and are to be in all ways preferred and recommended above The Moomins and the Great Flood which I really would only suggest for serious Moomin series fans and completists).