Author Guide · Children’s Books & Literary Fiction
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In 1945 a Finnish painter published a thin book in Swedish about a small white troll and his mother looking for his lost father. Tove Jansson, born in Helsinki in 1914, was then best known for her cartoons in the satirical magazine Garm, including wartime covers mocking Hitler and Stalin. Nine Moomin books appeared over the next 25 years, then a daily comic strip in London’s Evening News from 1954, then the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1966. In 1970 she stopped writing about Moomins and spent her last three decades on short, exact novels and stories for adults, many written on a bare island in the Gulf of Finland. This guide covers her 13 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 13 key books · 1945–1989 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Tove Jansson wrote nine Moomin books between 1945 and 1970, including Finn Family Moomintroll (1948) and Moominland Midwinter (1957), and then fiction for adults, best known The Summer Book (1972), The True Deceiver (1982) and Fair Play (1989). Start with The Summer Book; for the Moomins, start with Finn Family Moomintroll. Both halves of her work turn out to be about the same things: islands, solitude and the people who share them.
Where to Start with Tove Jansson
If you want her best-known book for adults
→ The Summer Book (1972) — a grandmother and a six-year-old on a small island for one summer.
If you want to start the Moomins
→ Finn Family Moomintroll (1948) — the book that made them famous in English.
If you want the Moomins at their darkest and best
→ Moominland Midwinter (1957) — Moomintroll awake and alone in winter.
If you want a sharp, unsettling novel
→ The True Deceiver (1982) — two women and a snowbound village.
13 Tove Jansson Books, in Order
The Moomins and the Great Flood
The first Moomin story, published in Swedish as Småtrollen och den stora översvämningen. Moomintroll and Moominmamma travel through a dark forest and a flood in search of Moominpappa, who has gone off with the Hattifatteners, and the story ends with the family settling in the valley. It is short and was long out of print; it did not appear in English until 2005.
Comet in Moominland
Moomintroll and Sniff set out for an observatory in the Lonely Mountains to find out about a comet heading for the earth, meeting Snufkin, the Snork and the Snork Maiden on the way. Written just after the war, it has been read as an allegory of the atomic threat. Jansson revised it twice, and later Swedish editions appeared as Mumintrollet på kometjakt and Kometen kommer.
Finn Family Moomintroll
Swedish title Trollkarlens hatt (The Hobgoblin’s Hat). The family finds a black top hat that transforms whatever is put into it, while two small creatures, Thingumy and Bob, arrive with a suitcase holding the King’s Ruby that the Hobgoblin is searching for. Its English translation of 1950 made the Moomins known outside the Nordic countries.
Moominsummer Madness
Farlig midsommar. A volcanic eruption floods Moominvalley and the family takes refuge in a drifting building that turns out to be a theatre, where they end up staging a play. Moomintroll and the Snork Maiden are separated from the others and arrested, and Snufkin pulls up every sign in a park keeper’s park.
Moominland Midwinter
Trollvinter. Moomintroll wakes in the middle of the winter hibernation while his family sleeps on, and has to face a snowbound valley he has never seen. He is helped by Too-ticky, who lives in the bathing house, and joined by Little My. The book introduces the “Lady of the Cold” and several winter creatures, and marks the turn towards the quieter, darker later books.
Tales from Moominvalley
Det osynliga barnet och andra berättelser. A collection of stories, each following a different inhabitant of the valley. The title story in Swedish, “The Invisible Child”, is about Ninny, a girl who has become invisible after being treated coldly and who slowly reappears in the Moomin household; another is about a Fillyjonk who is sure disaster is coming.
Moominpappa at Sea
Pappan och havet. Moominpappa, restless and feeling useless, moves the family to a lighthouse on a small rocky island. Each of them struggles in a different way: Moominmamma paints a garden on the walls to stand in for the one she left, and Moomintroll goes out at night to the Groke. It is the first Moomin book centred on adult unease rather than adventure.
Sculptor’s Daughter
Bildhuggarens dotter, her first book for adults: short pieces about her childhood, told from a child’s point of view. Her father Viktor was a sculptor and her mother Signe Hammarsten-Jansson a graphic designer and illustrator, and the book moves between the family studio in Helsinki and summers in the archipelago.
Moominvalley in November
Sent i november, the last Moomin novel, in which the Moomins never appear. Six characters, among them Snufkin, a Fillyjonk, a Hemulen and a small boy called Toft, travel to the Moomin house in late autumn looking for the family and find it empty, and wait there together.
The Summer Book
Sommarboken: twenty-two short chapters about Sophia, aged six, and her grandmother, spending a summer on a small island in the Gulf of Finland while Sophia’s father works. They build boats, argue, and talk about death and God. Translated into English by Thomas Teal and into 35 languages in all, it was Jansson’s own favourite of her adult novels. A film with Glenn Close as the grandmother, directed by Charlie McDowell, premiered at the BFI London Film Festival in 2024.
Sun City
Solstaden, a group portrait of the residents and staff of the Berkeley Arms, a retirement home in St. Petersburg, Florida, a world Jansson came across on her travels in America in the early 1970s. Translated by Thomas Teal, it was published in English by NYRB Classics in 2025.
The True Deceiver
Den ärliga bedragaren. In a snowbound village, Katri Kling, an outsider who lives with her simple-minded brother and refuses polite lies, sets out to take control of the life and money of Anna Aemelin, an elderly illustrator of children’s books. By spring the two women have undermined each other’s certainties. Thomas Teal’s translation won the Best Translated Book Award in 2011.
Fair Play
Rent spel, a novel in linked chapters about Mari, a writer, and Jonna, an artist, who live at opposite ends of an apartment building with their studios joined by an attic passage, and spend summers on an island. It follows their decades of work and argument together, and is generally read as a portrait of Jansson’s own life with the artist Tuulikki Pietiälä.
In What Order to Read Tove Jansson
The nine Moomin books share characters and a valley but can mostly be read alone; read them in publication order and you watch them change from adventure stories into books about loneliness and change, ending with Moominvalley in November, where the family is absent. The Moomins and the Great Flood is a slight beginning and can be left until later.
Her adult books are independent of one another. The Summer Book is the natural first; Fair Play reads best after it, since both come out of her life on the islands. Moominpappa at Sea and Moominvalley in November are the bridge between the two halves of her work.
A reading path
1. The Summer Book (1972)
2. Finn Family Moomintroll (1948)
3. Moominland Midwinter (1957)
4. Moominvalley in November (1970)
5. The True Deceiver (1982)
6. Fair Play (1989)
Everything Else Tove Jansson Published
Beyond the 13 key books: 12 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Moomin books and picture books
5
5 books · 1950–1980
- 1950The Exploits of MoominpappaMuminpappans bravader; later revised as Moominpappa’s Memoirs
- 1952The Book about Moomin, Mymble and Little Mypicture book, Hur gick det sen?
- 1960Who Will Comfort Toffle?picture book in verse, Vem ska trösta knyttet?
- 1977The Dangerous Journeypicture book, Den farliga resan
- 1980An Unwanted Guestpicture book, Skurken i Muminhuset
Stories and other books for adults
7
7 books · 1971–1998
- 1971The Listenerstories, Lyssnerskan
- 1978Art in Naturestories, Docksskåpet
- 1984The Field of Stonesshort novel, Stenåkern
- 1987Travelling Lightstories, Resa med lätt bagage
- 1991Letters from Klarastories, Brev från Klara
- 1993Notes from an Islandon Klovharu, with pictures by Tuulikki Pietiälä
- 1998MessagesMeddelande, selected stories 1971–1997
The years · 1914–2001
Quick facts about Tove Jansson
- Known for
- Tove Jansson is known for creating the Moomins, in nine books and a long-running newspaper comic strip, and for The Summer Book (1972), her best-known novel for adults.
- 1914
- Born in Helsinki
- 1954
- Moomin strip starts in the Evening News
- 1972
- The Summer Book
- 2001
- Dies in Helsinki, aged 86
- Born
- 9 August 1914, Helsinki; daughter of the sculptor Viktor Jansson and the illustrator Signe Hammarsten-Jansson
- Died
- 27 June 2001, Helsinki
- Language
- Swedish; she was part of Finland’s Swedish-speaking minority
- Trained
- Konstfack, Stockholm; the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts; art schools in Paris
- Partner
- The graphic artist Tuulikki Pietiälä, from 1956 until Jansson’s death
- Honours
- Hans Christian Andersen Award (1966); Selma Lagerlöf Prize (1992)
The red mark is 1948: Finn Family Moomintroll, the book that took the Moomins abroad.
How Tove Jansson Writes: Small Islands, Large Feelings
Jansson trained and worked as a painter and cartoonist before she was a writer, and she illustrated her own Moomin books. Her prose works the same way her drawings do: few lines, precise detail, a lot of white space. The chapters of The Summer Book are often only a few pages long, and much of what matters is left for the reader to infer.
Her subjects stay remarkably constant. Islands, storms, the sea, people who need to be alone and people who need others recur from Moominpappa at Sea to Fair Play, and many of her characters are drawn from life: Too-ticky from Tuulikki Pietiälä, and Mari and Jonna in Fair Play from herself and Pietiälä.
She rarely moralises, even for children. Moomins are allowed to be selfish, frightened or bored, catastrophes such as floods, comets and volcanoes happen and pass, and the later books treat loneliness, ageing and death plainly. That is why the late Moomin books and the adult fiction read so naturally side by side.
Frequently asked questions about Tove Jansson’s books
How many books has Tove Jansson written?
Around 25 under her own name. Thirteen are the key books on this page: eight Moomin books, from The Moomins and the Great Flood (1945) to Moominvalley in November (1970), and five books for adults, from Sculptor’s Daughter (1968) to Fair Play (1989). The rest are a ninth Moomin book, picture books, story collections and Notes from an Island (1993).
What are Tove Jansson’s books in order?
The Moomins and the Great Flood (1945), Comet in Moominland (1946), Finn Family Moomintroll (1948), Moominsummer Madness (1954), Moominland Midwinter (1957), Tales from Moominvalley (1962), Moominpappa at Sea (1965), Sculptor’s Daughter (1968), Moominvalley in November (1970), The Summer Book (1972), Sun City (1974), The True Deceiver (1982) and Fair Play (1989). Years are those of the first Swedish editions.
What order should I read the Moomin books in?
Publication order: The Moomins and the Great Flood (1945), Comet in Moominland (1946), Finn Family Moomintroll (1948), The Exploits of Moominpappa (1950), Moominsummer Madness (1954), Moominland Midwinter (1957), Tales from Moominvalley (1962), Moominpappa at Sea (1965) and Moominvalley in November (1970). Each stands alone, so Finn Family Moomintroll also works as a first one.
Where should I start with Tove Jansson?
With The Summer Book (1972), a short novel about a six-year-old and her grandmother on an island in the Gulf of Finland. If you want the Moomins, start with Finn Family Moomintroll (1948).
What is Tove Jansson’s most famous book?
The Moomins as a whole are her most famous creation; of single books, Finn Family Moomintroll (1948) is the best known Moomin novel and The Summer Book (1972) the best known book for adults.
Are the Moomin books for adults too?
Many adults read them, especially the later ones. Moominland Midwinter, Moominpappa at Sea and Moominvalley in November deal with loneliness, restlessness and loss, and in the last one the Moomin family does not appear at all.
Did Tove Jansson write in Swedish or Finnish?
Swedish. She belonged to Finland’s Swedish-speaking minority, and all her books first appeared in Swedish; the English titles are translations, several of the adult books by Thomas Teal.
Have Tove Jansson’s books been adapted?
Many times. The Moomins became a Polish puppet series (1978), a 104-episode Japanese–Dutch animated series (1990) and the animated series Moominvalley (2019). The Summer Book was filmed with Glenn Close, premiering in London in 2024, and Jansson’s own life is the subject of the Finnish film Tove (2020).
Who was Tove Jansson’s partner?
The graphic artist Tuulikki Pietiälä, whom she met in 1956; they were together for about 45 years and spent their summers on the small island of Klovharu. Pietiälä inspired Too-ticky in Moominland Midwinter. An earlier relationship with the theatre director Vivica Bandler is the subject of the film Tove (2020).
Is Tove Jansson still alive?
No. She died in Helsinki on 27 June 2001, aged 86.
Footnotes
- Tove Jansson — Wikipedia
- Moomin history — Moomin Characters (moomin.com)
- The Summer Book film — moomin.com
- How Moomin TV animations conquered the world — moomin.com
- The True Deceiver — NYRB Classics
- Sun City — NYRB Classics
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“All things are so very uncertain, and that’s exactly what makes me feel reassured.”
— Too-ticky in Tove Jansson, Moominland Midwinter (1957)
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