reading the true deceiver was like falling into a rabbit hole. i was instantly lost in it's crisp white cold menacing village and all the twists and turns in the minds of it's characters. so very different from the summer book and the moomins you may already know, this is a dark story full of tension and unexpected events.
a favorite paragraph:
"Evenings in the village were very quiet, just the barking of a mongrel dog or two. Everyone was at home having dinner, and there were lights in every window. As usual, it snowed. The roofs had heavy overhangs of snow, the paths tramped into snow during the day went white again, and the hard-packed banks on either side grew higher and higher. Inside the snow banks were deep, narrow tunnels where the children had dug hideouts for themselves during thaws. And outside stood their snowmen, snowhorses, formless shapes with teeth and eyes of bits of tin and coal. When the next hard freeze came, they poured water over these sculptures so they'd harden to ice."
deceptively brilliant.
a moomin cookbook? now that would be cozy to curl up with this winter!
Posted by: sosser | October 28, 2010 at 06:07 PM
I've only just read this myself and I can't put it out of my mind. The ending is as perfect as it could be. On a rather silly note, did you know there is a Moomin Cookbook that has been published in the UK? It looks like this winter I will be all wrapped up in Wool and Tove...
Posted by: Zom G. | October 28, 2010 at 02:06 PM
yes, it is - and don't you love surprises like this? she wrote more adult and juvenile novels but many are not in print in english. some new editions are being published and i can't wait to read more!
Posted by: sosser | October 06, 2010 at 09:08 PM
So evocative. I've never really thought of Tove outside the Moomins context. Life is full of surprises isn't it?
Posted by: Caz | October 06, 2010 at 08:29 PM