I bought this for safrolistics, as thanks for my very first Jan Guillou book.

Received today from Piiku, thankyou


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WOW, what a book, I really loved it.

The ending left me hanging a bit, but just imagine what happened next!

Reserved for a friend, and then I'll release it.

Reading this book was a strange pleasure, strongly evocative of Finnish nature and a particularly Finnish relationship to the natural world. Although the events of the book take place in a city, and many of them indoors, the presence of Pessi the troll, and the constant references to the wild forests outside remind us that even the most 'civilised' parts of human life are rooted in wild nature. And in Mikael's living room is a troll who he feeds sometimes with cat food, sometimes with rodents from the pet shop.... Trolls are related to cats (apparently!), so sometimes Pessi sits and sleeps; other times, he delights in the hunt, with messy (and lethal) consequences.

Particularly fun in this book is that each chapter has a heading which tells you who the narrator is --- and it's never Pessi. But interspersed with the narrative are extracts of texts about trolls. Are these texts 'real'? Some of the titles and authors are well known in Finland, which makes the part about the magical/troll world and the human world more believable.

This is a book that is easy and very enjoyable to read.


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Offering this up for an international bookring, please pm me with any postage preferences.

Translated from the Finnish by Herbert Lomas

The international fantasy best-seller — winner of the Finlandia Prize

Mikael, a young gay photographer, finds in the courtyard of his apartment block a small, man-like creature. It is a young troll, known from Scandinavian mythology as a demonic wild beast, a hybrid like the werewolf. Supposedly extinct, today it is used as a hairy, cuddly toy by Nordic children.

Mikael gives the troll a name, Pessi, and takes him home and hides him. The first thing Mikael does is rapidly to research everything he can about trolls from the internet, from folklore, nature journals and newspaper cuttings. What Mikael does not discover is that trolls exude pheromones that smell like a Calvin Klein aftershave and that this has a profound aphrodisiac effect on all those around him.

Shooting an assignment for the ultra-hip ‘Stalker’ jeans, Mikael finds himself fast-tracked into a dangerous liaison with Martes, the sexually ambivalent art director of the advertising agency, while a couple of his friends in turn fall in love with him because he carries the troll's scent.

What Mikael fails above all to learn, with tragic consequences, is that Pessi the troll is the interpreter of man's darkest, most forbidden feelings.


JOHANNA SINISALO was born in Finnish Lapland in 1958. Not Before Sundown, her acclaimed first novel, has been translated into eight languages, and is the first Finnish fiction to be published in this country for six years. Also known in Finland for her television and comic strip writing, Johanna has, in addition to the Finlandia Award, won the Atorox prize for best Finnish SF or fantasy story sixtimes and has been the winner of the Kemi National Comic Strip Contest three times.

releasing as a bookring, members so far

Dropi..........Finland
dsc............UK
YowlYY.........UK
nicolesinger....USA
dospescados.....USA
ladyofunicorns....USA
Caligula03....USA
sqdancer......Canada
wittysquirrel...Malaysia
aleonblue...........Australia
lakelady2282.......Australia
eris-in-oz..........Australia
Wirigerie...........Australia
xoddam..............Australia

Excellent

Received the book in the mail last Friday. I was surprised to get it finally, but will read & pass on, when the school's gonna let me to. The book does seem promising, anyway. It'll also be the first-ever Finnish book I'm reading in English :) Thanks!

I read the book when travelling in Estonia on Autumn holiday. I'd say I liked it, although it was quite interesting to read a Finnish book with so many references to Finnish folklore, common books, history etc. in English :P I'm sure I'll look for the Finnish version soon. It'll be interesting to compare them.

The book is a bit like some magical realism. It's for the most very very realistic, but the fantasy in it gives the story a funny touch... You kinda can't know what will happen next. I like the way Mikael changes when the story goes on. On the other hand I didn't get Palomita's role in the story. I also think not all the "quotes" from books and Internet and what all has been said about troll would've been necessary.

Thanks to safrolistics for letting me read this! The book will continue on when I get the next address :>

This arrived this morning, thank you. Will get onto it straight away.

This was an unusual book but very gripping. I liked the short chapters that kept the pace moving.
It was one of those books where you'd like to know what happens to several of the characters next.

The book has just arrived :) Thanks to dsc for mailing it so quickly... I shall start reading this week and won't be long before it moves to the USA. Cheers!

This was an astonishingly quick read and a grabbing one too!
I was compelled to read it in one go...and thanks to the train journey between Nottingham and Brighton that allowed me to do so.
Firstly, I loved the structure: dividing the story into short chapters, punctuated by quotations and excerpts out of historical/anthropologic textes made it so much more intriguing, as one never knows whether the bits quoted are true ones or just invented by the author. The idea of having the individual protagonists telling their own view of the story is also excellent, as it breaks the "tunnel vision" effect of having just one storyteller talking to the reader.
I found the ending quite quizzing...what happens now with the young man? Is he going to be adopted/kept prisoner by the trolls like in the fairy tales bits that were quoted every few pages of the tale?
I loved it very much, and I look forward to reading more by this author.
I have already the address of the next reader, but as I am currently travelling I won't be able to mail the book until next Monday.
Thanks for sharing this!

In the mail today (airmail) to nicolesinger... happy reading!

Just got home & have to rush off to class again - but I wanted to let you know that the book arrived today, safe and sound. Lovely postcards, too. Thanks! I paged through this while waiting for my kids to finish chess club, and the format is intriguing - looks as though it would be quick to read all at once, or easy to read a snippet at a time.

Should be a quick read - I'll PM for the next address after school tonight and try to get the book turned around again posthaste!

Interesting. I wasn't sure whether I liked this when I started it and almost decided to let it go, but I pressed on. I'm glad I did.

I was a bit irritated by the confusing, fragmentary information from the various sources on trolls - but at the same time, it was very realistic that way. The different first-person sections by a cacophony of voices, some only a paragraph long, each with a slightly different angle on the action - I liked a lot. (Wish we could have gotten some from Pessi's POV! But that would have spoiled the effect.)

I appreciated the ending. I've read some literary fiction lately that really seemed to disintegrate toward the end, but this held up, even though the resolution held as many questions as answers. Top-notch. I do think Palomita's story could have used more closure.

Aaand... I am ready to mail the book on. Dospescados and ladyofunicorns both have notes on their shelves asking to be skipped. I have PMed safrolistics, but don't know if PMs are getting through - I'm not sure whether to PM the two just to be absolutely certain, or take them at their word and go down the list to Caligula03. If PMs aren't working soon, please advise at nicsinger_writer[at]yahoo[dot]com.

Thank you, safrolistics, for sharing this with me!

Book is here. Thanks.

What a strange and oddly satisfying modern fantasy. I feel liked I've learned so much about trolls! The troll though reminded me of my mother in law's dog when it was a puppy and if it could walk upright. Imagine a cross between Stitch and a bouvier de flanders puppy and you'll see what I was picturing in my head for Pessi.

RELEASE NOTES:

Mailing to sqdancer.

Poor little book has had a rough trip. It appears as though it had been sitting on it's edge and had something dropped or crammed down on top of it. The padded envelope was ripped along one side leaving some black and red marks/smears on the page edges. The book is certainly still readable (the pages are not ripped or anything) but is rather squashed. I will place it under several heavy books to flatten it out, but it will always look crumpled. Don't you just love the Post Office :(

No response from wittysquirrel after several PMs. I will post an ISO in the Bookring forum and if I don't get a response there in a week or so, I will move on to the next person.

Received this book in my mailbox this afternoon. Thanks for posting! Poor book definitely looks like it's been battered.