And the worst thing was that they suggested motifs to him. Mummy and I felt so terribly embarrassed for them, but what could we do?

High Water
Tove Jansson

Sculptor’s Daughter, the first book for adults by Tove Jansson, gives an overview of Tove’s own childhood, which was magical and mysterious amidst all the mundane. Tove Jansson wraps the reader around her little finger in these “memoirs,” the environment of which is sometimes the studio of her father, sculptor Viktor Jansson, in Katajanokka in the 20s, sometimes summertime Pellinge, sea bays, and coves. The book intertwines the calm realism of a child’s everyday life, an idyll, and a fairy tale, stirred by a bold imagination – and we understand where the Moomins come from.

Sculptor’s Daughter on the publisher Sort of Books’ website.

The book was first published in Swedish as Bildhuggarens dotter in 1968 and was translated into English in 1969.