The Summer Book

Eriksson is a family friend, a fisherman and a scavenger, but he does not visit often. He does not enjoy fishing, but he loves and is skilled at scavenging items from the ocean, including debris from shipwrecks that occur far out at sea. He also takes on odd jobs for people on the island. His visits are short and unpredictable, and he never talks about himself or other people. While he is visiting, everyone focuses on him, and they continue to think about him after he is gone. Most of his visits entail him stopping by the island to leave small gifts before anyone is awake. Sophia likes Eriksson because he treats her like he treats everyone else, rather than treating her like a child.

Eriksson drops off a box of fireworks and says he will return on Midsummer Eve. They clean the house especially thoroughly, although they know Eriksson will not notice, and they decorate it with wildflowers. It is windy and rainy all day on Midsummer Eve, but the family still prepares for the evening’s festivities by setting four places at the table and bringing out extra milk. Although Grandmother knows Eriksson will not eat vegetable dishes or dessert, she makes them anyway, so the table will look nice.

The storm continues all day, and Grandmother, resting in her bed, thinks back to the nicer weather during her youth. The weather subsides, Eriksson arrives, and Sophia shouts that he does not want to eat and that he is in a rush. Grandmother dresses in warm clothes and descends, and the family climbs into Eriksson’s boat. Eriksson drives the boat south to the site of a shipwreck, and they, along with people in several other boats, salvage goods from the wreck. They stay out collecting items all night, and Sophia falls asleep.

In the morning, Eriksson returns Father, Grandmother, and Sophia home, keeping all the salvaged items for himself. Father tries to light off the fireworks, but only the final one fires. Meanwhile, Eriksson returns to the shipwreck.

In her youth, Grandmother had fought so that girls could be part of the Scouts, and she led a troop, and some of her troop members still reach out to her. Father buys a tent and places it in a ravine, so he can get away from home when it is crowded. Sophia asks Grandmother if Father’s tent is a Scout tent, and although it is much different from the tents she used, she says that it could be a Scout tent.

Sophia asks Grandmother about the Scouts, and while she had wanted to talk about it in the past, she does not feel the urge to now nor does she remember much about that time. However, she suggests Sophia spends the night in a tent sometime.

Sophia goes to the tent in the evening and falls asleep as the sun is setting. It is dark when she wakes, and she can hear birds and the crunching of gravel. She asks God for bravery and for people to not mock her if she does get scared, and she lays in the tent and listens to her surroundings.

Getting out of the tent, she walks to Grandmother’s house. Grandmother could not sleep and was thinking sad thoughts. She says things that used to be fun have lost their meaning, and she is frustrated because she can’t talk about them anymore. Sophia, who feels that she is too young to sleep alone in a tent, angrily asks Grandmother what she means by saying it is no longer fun. Grandmother feels limited by her age, which Sophia argues against before Grandmother clarifies:

I’ve been doing everything for an awfully long time, and I’ve seen and lived as hard as I could, and it’s been unbelievable, I tell you, unbelievable. But now I have the feeling everything’s gliding away from me, and I don’t remember, and I don’t care, and yet now is right when I need it (80).

Grandmother can’t remember what sleeping in a tent is like, and she tells Sophia that, when she was young and living in Sweden, girls were not allowed to sleep in tents before she fought to make it allowed. Sophia describes what it is like, and she and Grandmother eat a snack. Tired, Sophia returns to the tent to sleep, and Grandmother returns to bed and remembers her past.

A businessman builds a house on a nearby island—Blustergull Rock. Grandmother and Sophia take a boat to Blustergull Rock. They see a “NO TRESPASSING” sign on the beach, but Grandmother goes ashore anyway. She says that they are going ashore because the sign is “a slap in the face” (83).

Grandmother criticizes the house, saying the door is in a bad location and mocking the plastic water barrels. Grandmother and Sophia walk up to the window to peek inside. The shutters are padlocked, and Grandmother picks the lock and opens the window, telling Sophia that under different circumstances they would not break into someone’s house. The house is decorated with maritime artifacts and a large painting of a ship in a storm. Sophia guesses that the newcomer will not know how to properly sink his garbage into the sea, which is bad because everything he has is large.

As they are looking into the house, they hear a motorboat and run and hide in the foliage. The people who landed on the island release a dog, which quickly tracks Grandmother and Sophia. The owner of the house, Malander, introduces himself and his son, Christopher, then invites Grandmother and Sophia to the house. When they get to the house, Christopher notices the broken lock and open window, and Grandmother suggests that whoever broke it was curious about the house and that it is better to leave houses open.

Inside, Grandmother sits down and tells Sophia, who is acting shy, that she needs to learn how to socialize. Malander offers them drinks, and Sophia whispers to Grandmother she wants lemonade, then whispers again asking for sugar. They decline a second beverage, and when they go to leave, the dog tries to bite Grandmother’s walking stick, so Sophia distracts it. Grandmother is impressed that Sophia remembers the dog’s name—Delilah.

Before departing, Grandmother warns Malander against building a dock, which will get broken by ice in the winter, but she knows that he, like everyone, will try to build a dock. They leave, and Grandmother tells Sophia that people need to make their own mistakes. She notices that the house looks like a channel marker: “If you squinted and thought about something else, it might almost be a channel marker—an objective indicator that here was a change of course” (94). Malander does not return the visit, and the family thinks about him whenever it storms.