Epp Petrone: Tove Jansson's 'Summer Book' takes the fear out of ageing and death

Estonian author and publisher Epp Petrone reflects on how Tove Jansson's 'The Summer Book' is one of those rare books that can dissolve the fear of ageing and death. The novel's final sentence, depicting an elderly grandmother quietly deciding whether to go to sleep or sit a while longer, leaves a lasting impression. Petrone finds comfort in the idea that death might come just as gently.

Some books do something quietly extraordinary — they take the fear out of ageing and death. For Estonian author and publisher Epp Petrone, Tove Jansson's classic novel The Summer Book is one of them.

The Finnish author's beloved work ends with a simple, unhurried sentence: the grandmother is weighing whether to go to sleep or sit just a little longer, and in the end she stays sitting. It is an image of profound stillness, and it lingers.

Petrone writes that she finds comfort in that closing image. If death could come in such a way — quietly, without fear, sitting in the pleasant dark and simply thinking things over — that would not be such a terrible thing at all. The grandmother does not leave with drama or dread. She simply remains.

Jansson's The Summer Book, first published in 1972, is a semi-autobiographical novel set on a small island in the Gulf of Finland. It follows the relationship between an elderly grandmother and her young granddaughter through a series of gentle summer episodes. The book has been widely translated and is considered one of Jansson's finest works outside the Moomin series.

For readers who find themselves anxious about mortality, Petrone's reflection is a quiet recommendation: sometimes the most profound comfort comes not from philosophy or religion, but from a single sentence at the end of a novel — one that lets an old woman sit in the dark a little longer.