Moominvalley in November

By Tove Jansson

As autumn is turning into winter, a group of visitors are waiting to see the Moomin family. Finding that the Moomins are not at home, the guests settle down to wait for them and suddenly find new ways to relate to each other. For Moominvalley is Moominvalley still, even without the Moomins in it.

Moominvalley in November is a quiet and melancholic book. The central characters of Moominvalley, the Moomin family, are absent – a very bold choice for a writer who was at the height of her popularity in 1970, when the book was published. The last, most profound and elegiac of Tove Jansson’s Moomin novels, Moominvalley in November is a gentle farewell to Moominvalley in the last story of all. 

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. 

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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.