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A Genteel Black Hole

Tag: Moomins

  • Bookish Ramble: The Moomins and the Great Flood

    Ally

    Title: The Moomins and the Great Flood
    (Moomins #1)
    Author: Tove Jansson
    (Translated by David McDuff)
    Year: 1945
    Country: Finland

    Format: E-book
    Pages: 52
    Read: 21 – 24 February 2026
    First reading

    Moominmamma and her son Moomintroll are looking for Moominpappa, who hasn’t come back from his latest adventure. Their search takes them through forests, swamps and mountains, meeting various weird and wonderful people along the way. A heavy rainstorm almost spells disaster, but Moominmamma and Moomintroll survive the flood and eventually find Moominpappa—and a new place to call home.

    The Moomins and the Great Flood was Finland’s introduction to the Moomins, first published in 1945—but only translated into English in 2005. It was the last Moomins novel I read, and to me it feels very different from the rest of the series. For one thing it’s a much shorter book. It’s also less coherent, flitting from scene to scene without pause, like a small child breathlessly telling you a story: “And then this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened…” Tove Jansson’s illustrations are (as always) utterly charming, and there’s a faint glimmer of the magic that would come in later books. But this is easily my least favourite Moomins novel of the bunch, and certainly not one I’d recommend as an introduction. Much better skip ahead to the magnificent second book, Comet in Moominland.

    The edition I read did include some interesting bonus material though. There’s a nice foreword from the current Children’s Laureate, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, providing some historical context for the story. There’s also excerpts from Tove Jansson’s own notes about her characters, originally written to help prospective writers and directors of Moomins adaptations. So, while the novel itself was pretty disappointing, reading it still enhanced my apprecation for the other books in a series I’ve grown to adore.

  • Bookish Ramble: Moominvalley in November

    Ally

    Title: Moominvalley in November
    (Moomins #9)
    Author: Tove Jansson
    (Translated by Kingsley Hart)
    Year: 1970
    Country: Finland

    Format: E-book
    Pages: 160
    Read: 11 – 19 January 2026
    First reading

    Moominvalley in November is the final book in Tove Jansson’s Moomins series. The Moomin family themselves don’t actually appear, having moved suddenly in the previous book to a remote lighthouse. Instead this book follows a disparate group of visitors who are disappointed to find the Moomin family home abandoned. The visitors (including Moomintroll’s mercurial bestie Snufkin) stay for a while, hoping for the family to return, while gradually learning how to be comfortable with each other… and with themselves.

    Snufkin padded along calmly, the forest closed round him and it began to rain. The rain fell on his green hat and on his raincoat, which was also green, it pittered and pattered everywhere and the forest wrapped him in a gentle and exquisite loneliness.

    The Moomins books always did have a streak of melancholy, but in this one it’s more pronounced than ever; most likely influenced by Tove Jansson’s grief at the loss of her mother. The Moomin family’s absence is keenly felt, especially by the young orphan Toft, a storyteller who yearns to be adopted by Moominmamma. Then there’s Grampa-Grumble, who has decided to make the most of his dementia by deliberately forgetting his family; and Fillyjonk, who struggles with anxiety after a near-death experience.

    These are troubled characters—and they don’t always understand, or openly express, their troubles. The whole book (apart from its quietly hopeful ending) is shrouded in sadness, loneliness, and unspoken loss. I can’t guess how younger readers would react to such a book, but my melancholic inner child (and my equally melancholic adult self) found it a moving and absorbing read. I love that Tove Jansson never patronises her readers. She trusts them to understand what remains unspoken.

    I’m sad to have reached the end of the Moomins series, but it certainly ended on a high note—albeit in a minor key. I still plan to circle back and read the very first book, so my personal journey through Moominvalley isn’t quite finished. (And the comic book series is starting to look mighty tempting too!) Ever since I read Comet in Moominland back in April of ’25, I’ve fallen completely in love with the Moomins. I fully expect to reread the whole series in the coming years.