Moominvalley in November
Tove Jansson's Moomin characters and books are admired the world over. In the United States the series beginning with Finn Family Moomintroll (first published in English in 1945) has accumulated generations of fans. Since Farrar, Straus and Giroux began reissuing the books in 1989, grateful readers old and new have been thrilled to have the stories available again.
At last the final installment is being published – oddly, the only book that features none of the Moomin family themselves, though it does take place at their house. There familiar characters converge – Snufkin, the Hemulen, Fillyjonk, and others – seeking out the Moomins' welcoming company, only to find them absent. All remain at the house, all have very different personalities that clash often, but something about their homey cohabitation during the icy winter changes each visitor in a gratifying way.
As The Times Literary Supplement put it, Moominvalley in November is "possibly the cleverest of the Moomin books."
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Tove Jansson
Tove Jansson didn’t just imagine a world—she built one out of mist, melancholy, and moonlight. From the quiet valleys of Finland, she gave life to the Moomins, a whimsical family of creatures whose gentle adventures have spoken to generations about joy, solitude, and the beauty of being different. But to see her merely as the creator of beloved children’s books is to overlook the vast emotional and artistic landscape she traversed.
Born in Helsinki in 1914 into a family of artists—her father a sculptor, her mother an illustrator—Jansson’s creative world was shaped early by both structure and rebellion. As a young woman, she studied art in Stockholm, Helsinki, and Paris, yet always moved restlessly between painting, writing, and illustration, refusing to be pinned down. That freedom pulses through her books, where philosophical questions drift beneath the surface of fairytale-like prose, and where even the smallest creature might harbor a secret sorrow or sudden spark of courage.
The Moomin Books
The Moomin Books consists of nine books. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
