The Woman Who Borrowed Memories

Tove Jansson (1914–2001) was born in Helsinki, attended art schools in Stockholm and Paris, and upon her return to Finland in the late 1940s won acclaim for her paintings and murals. It was in the left-leaning anti-Fascist Finnish-Swedish magazine Garm where her most famous creation, Moomintroll, made his first appearance. Jansson also wrote eleven novels and short-story collections for adults, including The Summer Book, The True Deceiver, and Fair Play (available as NYRB Classics). Lauren Groff is a novelist and short story writer. Her books include The Monsters of Templeton, Delicate Edible Birds, and, most recently, Arcadia. She lives in Gainesville, Florida.   Thomas Teal has translated Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book, The True Deceiver, and Fair Play for which he was awarded the Bernard Shaw Prize for Translation from the Swedish in 2009. He lives in Massachusetts.   Silvester Mazzarella is a translator of Italian and Swedish literature and has taught at the University of Helsinki. He lives in the United Kingdom.