A modern Scandinavian classic, originally published in 1977, Tove Jansson's slim novel follows a young girl and an old woman as they traipse around the coast and countryside of their tiny island in the Gulf of Finland, setting out for a neighboring island, shelling along the beach, turning over stones or talking about the cat. Known for her marvelous Moomin children's books (there are many), Jansson, who spent every summer on an island in the Gulf of Finland, also wrote 10 books for adults. This one, fiction that reads like a memoir. is beautifully translated by Teal Thomas.  (SCN56, $14.00)

Longitude News June: Summer Reading, Beijing, Kazakhstan
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