El libro del verano

"In the interior of the forest the grandmother gathered a piece of moss from a tree, a piece of fern and a dead moth. Sophia followed her without question. Every time Grandma put something in her pocket, she felt calmer. The moon was somewhat reddish and almost as bright as the sky, under which she cast her light forming a path to the shore. They continued across the island to the other end. Every now and then, Grandma would bend over and she would find something important. She was walking tall and dark right in the middle of the moonlight path, her clumsy legs and her cane were advancing incessantly and she was getting bigger and bigger. The moonlight fell on her hat and her shoulders, and she watched over destiny and the entire island. There was no doubt that the grandmother would find everything she needed to ward off misfortune and death. Everything could fit in her pocket". On what is almost the last inhabited island in the Finnish archipelago before the open sea, in the Baltic, a grandmother and a granddaughter spend summers with the little girl's father. His life adapts to the sweet rhythms of the holidays and the unforeseen weather, with droughts and storms. This is a simple-looking book that delves, with charming lightness, into the chiaroscuro of the human soul and the laws of nature. The dialogue between Sophia, the girl who begins to make her way through life, and her grandmother, who has lived intensely and feels death near, traces the contours of a bond that remains in memory for a long time.