READ // The Summer Book by Tove Jansson

Purchase on Amazon (only place I could find it for sale online).

This novel is magical. In simple language (it was originally written in Swedish), the author paints scenes of a summer on a small island in the Gulf of Finland. There is a grandmother, old and ailing but kind, cranky, and still interested in small adventures, and her granddaughter, young, obstinate, and determined. The young girl's father is around too but only as the merest of supporting characters. There is no plot, simply the passage of time following these two characters through a hot summer in a setting teeming with nature. It's magical, real, philosophical, and wise.