This volume of the Moomins is a real departure from the previous instalments. Tonally it is very bleak, with the Moomin family moving to a remote island largely due to Moominpappa's midlife crisis. It is also implied (I think, anyway) that Moominmamma is either currently suffering from a reasonably serious illness or is in recovery from one, as nobody will let her do anything or exert herself in any way.Maybe it was just the way I was reading it but it almost felt like it was veering into gothic...

This book has everything a children's book should have: Pipe smoking, whisky, and existential crisis. This book taught me a lot about life when I was younger, and I still find it as comforting and mysterious as ever.Tove Jansson, you are the best, I give you a kiss on the nose!

It's To The Lighthouse but with moomins.

Oh, boy. I had heard the later Moomin books weren't as cheery and written to be happy escapism as the earlier ones, but this really was a stark change.Moominpappa decides he needs a huge life change, so he uproots the family to live on an abandoned lighthouse in the middle of the ocean. There's only one other person living on the island: a strange and lonely fisherman who may be the key to understanding this curious, melancholy place where they live now.I can't believe how much of this book made...

Probably my favorite in the series so far!

Not my favourite in the series, but still a fun read and such a pivotal moment in the story! :)

This was my third Moomin-book, one I was left in awe after reading. Moominpappa at Sea was deliberately darker than other books on the series I've read this far, something I was not expecting. The story began dark, and it only got darker and more suffocating the longer it continued, a feeling of inevitable doom lingered around the lonely island and the huge lighthouse the Moomin family moved into. The story circled around Moominpappa, who felt unnecessary, felt less-of-a-man, felt like his missi...

If Moominland Midwinter is about a journey from a place of depression to one of hope and joy, Moominpappa at Sea is about acceptance. In it, depression cannot be overcome: sadness, loss and despair are all integral parts of life, and we must learn to live with them. Perhaps the strangest of all the very strange Moomin books, we begin with the family safe in Moominvalley, but Moominpappa feels useless and unhappy, and they decide to journey to a distant island and live in a lighthouse. The island...

I don't acutally know any children who might have read this book, but oh boy! This does NOT seem like a children's book. Rather, I found it a totally profound book about a crisis in masculinty, midlife crisis and the dangers of isolation. Not only poignant but very moving and emphatic. This was so accurately and acutely observed that I'm ready to name it a masterpiece about the postmodern condition. As such, this is miles away from the usual fare of contemporary children's books.I'd be very inte...

I am never going to get tired of Moominpappa at Sea. I knew it when I was 10, I knew it when I was 18 and I'm still as sure now, at 24, after eagerly devouring the book in almost one go, yet again. I've read all Moomin books multiple times but Moominpappa at Sea remains my personal favourite and I can't even begin to tell you how happy I was to finally get my own copy which I was desperately trying to get hold of for years. And then the whole series got rereleased this year for the 100th anniver...

My kid found this one boring because there weren't enough characters. "Can we go back to Finn Family Moomintroll instead?"It's an interesting book though, and it's way more focused than the earlier Moomin books. We get the family in one odd new place, where they deal with the place, themselves, and each other. In some ways it's the most literary one of the series, at least of what I've read so far. I liked it and certainly didn't expect a deep Moomin character study this late in the series.And t...

A peculiar only-sort-of-for-children late Moomin novel where the family attempts of combat leisure-ennui by moving to a ragged lighthouse island far out in the ocean. Concerns itself to a large degree with the need for strife, or at least a challenge, to give daily purpose -- without which lies only depression and torpor. Yikes. Still some strange moments of magic and wonder, of course, but tempered by cynicism and a warm-but-realistic sense of the petty and no-so-petty impulses that drive peopl...

I enjoyed taking my time with this book. It has a wonderful, strong atmosphere that I loved just sinking into one or two chapters at a time. The element of sea and living by the seaside is very strong here. I've never lived by the sea, but I still felt I could hear the winds, see the rocks and smell the sea air as I read this. I also love the subtle descriptions of the Moomintroll growing up, and the way the Groke becomes a much deeper character in this book than before.

In my opinion, Tove Jannson is the best children's author who ever lived and one of the ten greatest authors of the twentieth century. I have only read her Moomintroll work and not the work for adults, but I have read almost all of the Moomintroll books, picture books and comic strips. In this review I will focus on Moominpappa at Sea, but I will also try to give a sense of why I think that she deserves to be placed with the likes of Orwell, Nabakov, Hemingway and Selby, even though she wrote bo...

Boy, as weird as these books get, this one was the weirdest! The family decides to set off on their boat and live on the tiny dot of an island with a lighthouse on it that Moominpappa has "claimed". There is no food, the lighthouse isn't working, and the former lighthouse keeper is either dead or has completely lost his marbles. Moominmamma becomes so homesick that she paints herself into a mural of their garden at home, Moominpappa tries to find the bottom of a bottomless pit, and Moomintroll m...

I think this is the best Moomin story, and is five stars all the way. It only seems to get better as you get older ... why is that?

The Moomin series has always been remarkable not only for its charm and whimsy, but also for its sense of melancholy, unusual in children's literature. Moominpappa at Sea is a particularly introspective installment; here you will find no heroic battles or overwhelming drama, just one family's quiet journey of self-discovery when they move to a mysterious island. And an island is the perfect setting for this story, for the characters become more and more insular as they explore their new environs...

Although I was definitely looking rather forward to reading the Kingsley Hart translation of Tove Jansson’s 1965 Pappan och havet (Moominpappa at Sea) I was also a bit worried regarding my potential reading pleasure, since for one, I have not generally ever really enjoyed any of the previous Moomin novels where Moominpappa plays a major and active role, where he acts as a central characters, and that for two, I have also more often than not really had trouble textually enjoying and accepting the...

The end is nigh! I've been on this Moomin saga a long time now, some years, occupying my small book, fourth slot on my rota. This is the penultimate book in the series. I'm not really sure they were at all what I was expecting when I started and often find myself not overly impressed about one thing or another. But they do usually turn out to be an acceptable read in the end. This one is no different.Not for the first time in the series, this book revolves around the sea, the author seems slight...

When Moomintroll reports that he has extinguished a small fire in the moss, his father becomes unexpectedly cross and obsessive: "Don't imagine that a spot like this isn't dangerous. Far from it. It can go on burning under the moss, you see. In the ground. Hours and perhaps even days may go by, and then suddenly, whoof! The fire breaks out somewhere quite different." He is, of course, actually speaking about his own lingering dissatisfactions.This starting point isn't dissimilar to 'The Secret o...