Moominpappa at Sea

“He felt completely alive from the tips of his ears to the tip of his tail”

In Moominpappa at Sea, released in 1965, the Moomin family moves from the safe and familiar Moominvalley to a distant lighthouse island at the mercy of the sea, storms and the forces of nature. Even the home-loving Moomins need a change of scenery sometimes. The trip is initiated by Moominpappa, who has lost touch with himself and has started to feel unnecessary.

Moominpappa yearns to make a fresh start, to find a rocky island and lighthouse where he’ll feel alert and important again. And so, the Moomins set sail for a new home.
In Moominpappa at Sea they arrive at an island that proves as mysterious and wild as even Moominpappa had hoped. It even has a deserted lighthouse. But how is Moominmamma to grow her flowers and what strange fate befell the last keeper of the lighthouse? As they discover their new home, the family also discovers surprising, and wonderfully funny, new things about themselves.

Moominpappa at Sea is the eighth book in the beloved Moomin book series which Tove Jansson began writing in the 1940s.

Publishing information

Year of publication

1965

Page count

228

Original title

Pappan och havet

Original language

Swedish

Book series

Moomin Original Novels (Book 8)

Rights sold

Norwegian
English
Japanese
Swedish
Lithuanian
Bulgarian
Estonian
Faroese
Dutch
Arabic
Chinese complex
Chinese simplified
Georgian
Karelian
Macedonian
Czech
Thai
Slovenian
German
Korean
Spanish
Ukrainian
Polish
Persian
Russian
French
Danish
Azerbaijani
Turkish
Slovakian
Icelandic
Vietnamese
Greek
Esperanto
Latvian
Italian
Kurmanji (Northern Kurdish)

About the author

Tove Jansson (1914-2001), Finnish-Swedish writer and artist, achieved worldwide fame as the creator of the Moomins, written and illustrated between 1945 and 1970. The books about the brave, adventurous, yet family-focused and home-loving Moomins have been translated into more than 60 languages and are still in print all over the world today.The Moomins were, of course, only a part of Jansson’s prodigious output. Already admired in Nordic art circles as a painter, cartoonist and illustrator, she would go on to write a series of classic novels and short stories. She remains Scandinavia’s best-loved author.Tove Jansson’s work reflected the tenets of her life: her love of family and nature, and her insistence on freedom to pursue her art. “Work and love” was the motto she chose for herself and her approach to both was joyful and uncompromising.

Author page

Reviews

"Whichever way you look at Moominpappa at Sea, it’s hard to avoid the fact that it’s centred around a midlife crisis. Moominpappa feels listless and unimportant, so he drags his family off to a remote island to become a lighthouse keeper in a bid to feel alive again. They each undergo their own existential journey as they explore the mysterious island. The book is warm, funny and philosophical, showing us the beautiful absurdity of human nature reflected in a family of gentle trolls."

J. B. Smith, MSN