A review by curiousreader
Lyssnerskan by Tove Jansson

4.0

In this short story collection, Tove Jansson explores emotional experiences through the everyday; she tells us stories of people who are aging, who are isolated, who dream, who are mesmerized by art and by nature. They are stories with a twist, some even have a surrealist tone to them - like the story of the embroider woman who can foresee death. For the most part the people in Jansson's stories are unremarkable, but the way she gives them life feels authentic - they feel warm blooded; her stories, like in The Summer Book, capture the process and feelings of aging and loneliness in a way I've never quite seen in any other writer. Even though Jansson's writing and use of language itself is bare, stripped down, and quite understated - there is a sharpness and feeling of selectivity in her wording that makes her writing all the more effective.