Moominsummer Madness / Vaarallinen juhannus, by Tove Jansson
Moominsummer Madness and Vaarallinen juhannus ( 'Perilous Midsummer' - my translation!) are the same book, the first being the English translation, the other the Finnish. I've just read them together, in an exercise rather like that of a while ago when I read St Exupéry's Courrier Sud in French, English and Finnish. Note that while Tove Jansson was Finnish, she wrote in Swedish, and these two volumes are both translations of the original. Some day I'd like to chat to some one who's familiar with the original Swedish, because just like with Courrier Sud , I'm fascinated by how much translators can render the style, the tone, the nuance etc of their texts. I would like to know if the rich vocabulary of the Finnish translation in particular accurately reflects Tove Jansson's in Swedish. I fully expect a yes to that, by the way. I have no doubt of her genius. These may be 'children's books', but they tick all the boxes you want for literary