Title:: [[The True Deceiver]] Authors:: [[Tove Jansson]] Tags:: #fiction Read:: [[2025-07-12]] Instagram :: https://www.instagram.com/jeronimo_ficus/p/DMBYXwwPIng/ ## Editions - Edition:: [[New York Review of Books (NYRB)]], 2009 - Original Copyright:: 1982 - Pages:: 208 ## Purchase * Bookshop.org:: https://bookshop.org/a/94437/9781590173299 ## Annotations Jansson’s minimalistic prose belies the psychological warfare between this novels few characters. Set in a remote Nordic village, where the winter never seems to end, the weather itself becomes a key character. It dictates what the villagers can do and when, and it even influences how they interact. The deception and manipulation alluded to in the title is key to the story, but if the weather plays a role in fomenting it, I think it’s at least equally due to the familiarity and isolation of the villagers. In such an environment, I imagine there is a deep need to feel like you have control over something, and this is a story about what happens when the only something around is your neighbors. I enjoyed this.  Translated from Finnish by Thomas Teal.