Moominvalley in November: Tove Jansson

The last, most profound and elegiac of Tove Jansson’s Moomin novels

The Moomins, in case you haven’t already met them, are kind, philosophical creatures with velvety fur and smooth round snouts, who live in a beautiful Finnish valley. They sleep through the winter and when spring comes they wake and clamber down rope ladders hanging from their windows, ready for a bright new adventure.

But in Moominvalley in November, the Moomins are missing. They have left their beloved Moominvalley – for the mysterious lighthouse island of Moominpappa at Sea – and no one has seen them since. As winter draws near, Snufkin, Mymble, Toft and others move into the Moominhouse to await the family’s return and soon find themselves absorbed in exploits of their own. Only little Toft lingers on. The gentle creature has seen a flicker of light on the horizon. Could this be the Moomins sailing back?

Moominvalley in November, the final novel in the series, was published in 1970 and serves as a beautiful and deeply subtle valediction to the world of the Moomins. It has appeared in more than fifty languages