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The True Deceiver, by Tove JanssonThis novel by Finnish writer Tove Jansson (1914–2001) was originally published in 1982 (Den ärliga bedragaren). The Finnish, but Swedish-speaking, Tove Jansson was born an artistic child of bohemian Finnish artists. Signe Hammarsten, her mother, was one of Finland's best-known artists, designers and book illustrators, while her father, Viktor Jansson, was a celebrated sculptor.Tove Jansson is world-famous for her Moomin tales for children, This novel focuses on an intense relationship between two strong women in a snowy Swedish village. It is beautifully and sparsely written. It is a short but very compelling tale with considerable depth. Katri Kling is an outsider living with her simple-minded brother. She is a woman that has little time for politeness, niceties and social conventions. Also, she is brutally frank. Anna Aemelin, the other main character in this novel, is an artist. Her great talent is to reproduce the flora and fauna of the forest floor. But Anna has something Katri wants. Katri is a deceptive lady. She wants Anna's big house in the woods. So she stages fake break-in and persuades Anna to take her on as a housekeeper. Slowly and deliberately Katri insinuates herself into Anna's life. Then she moves in with her brother Mats. And starts taking over more and more aspects of Anna’s life, moving from weather-proofing her windows to managing her business accounts. Gradually and increasingly she proceeds to shatter Anna’s perceptions. It is hard to classify The True Deceiver. It's so rich that it trancends narrowly defined genres. It is a very unusual and somewhat unsettling book. It may be viewed as a novel about class and hierarchy, or about power in dependency relationships, as an autobiography or as a psychological thriller. Perhaps it is mostly the latter, as Jansson writes in a way that gradually increases the tension and increasingly makes you feel that something bad is going to happen. The intensity of the battle between the two women grows steadily. The True Deceiver is well written, excellently translated by Thomas Teal, mysterious, quite tense, sometimes beautiful and sometimes cruel, deeply unsettling, deep and at times startling. A study of truth, deception and paradox. It is not a book will easily forget, and it is definitely well worth reading. Praise: “I loved this book...understated yet exciting, and with a tension that keeps you reading. .. The characters still haunt me.” —Ruth Rendell |
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with her own illustrations. So it is easy, but actually a very common mistake, to think of her “only” as a writer of children’s books. As a matter of fact, she wrote 11 books for adults. Two other books for adults, 
and 
, have also been
translated into English. The True Deceiver is the third of these books.
, 
, and 
.