Troll: A Love Story

[ubik]

hey, i wanted to recommend this book i just read:

Troll: A Love Story

From Publishers Weekly

A young Finnish photographer makes a pet of an orphaned troll in this strange, sexually charged contemporary folk tale, a hit in Europe. Mikael, nicknamed Angel for his stunning blonde good looks, finds the troll behind some dustbins after a night of drinking, and feels compelled to bring it home ("It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen... I know straight away that I want it"). The troll is small and black, thoroughly wild but also oddly human, with an overpowering, arousing juniper-berry smell. Obsessed by his new companion, whom he names Pessi, Angel sets out to learn everything he can about trolls, which in the novel's world are a real but extremely rare species. Much of the book is composed of excerpts from reference works and novels, the most valuable of which is a rare volume by Gustaf Eur?n, called The Wild Beasts of Finland. This book is supplied by Ecke, Angel's nerdy, fervid suitor; Angel also coerces help from a veterinarian ex-boyfriend; an advertising art director who buys his photographs and rejects his advances; and an abused Filipino mail-order bride who lives downstairs. Sinisalo's elastic prose is at once lyrical and matter-of-fact, but this is not a comfortable novel. The troll brings out Angel's animal instincts, representing all the seduction and violence of the natural world. As the troll becomes ever more unmanageable, the sense of doom grows; the ferocious ending is thoroughly unsettling.

an excerpt from the book:

I lean over the mirror, and my face is reflected there. Next to my own, a smaller, dark face appears, with pointed ears, a twinkle of curiosity in its orange eyes.

Pessi tests the mirror with his paw: He looks at me and then back at the reflection. He shows his teeth but recoils a little when the troll in the mirror returns his grimace; but then he edges back to the mirror and again tests the cold glass surface with his paw.

We look at each other, me and the troll. The lamplight's casting a pale halo around my head, and at my side Pessi is a dark silhouette. We look at each other and then at the mirror and then back at each other.

[Rad]

Wow.......falling for troll????? The only trolls I remember watching is the ones in Harry Potter and they're ugly.

I like happy endings though and the review says that th eending is unsettling. I just wanna ask one thing: does it have a good/happy ending?

Cheers!

Rad

[ubik]

in this case the trolls are not ugly, they are more like cat-people. a yeti if you like, or bigfoot. hairy humans with sharp teeth and claws.

absolutely not the trolls from harry potter!

well, you can't really say it's a happy ending. i liked it, but I can't really tell without spoiling it!

[JamesSavik]

I thought trolls were 40+ year old adolescents that hang out in very dark bars wearing leisure suits and hit on everything with a pulse. :roll:

[DesDownunder]

... hit on everything with a pulse.   :roll:

I think the pulse is optional. :p