Troll: A Love Story

by Johanna Sinisalo

Book Overview

"A wily thriller-fantasy . . . Each discovery sounds like the voice of a storyteller reminding us of how the gods play with our fates."--New York Times Winner of the Finlandia Award, Troll: A Love... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802141293
• Release Date: February 2004
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.77 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.8" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Quality of Item

Haven’t read the book yet, but I am very disappointed in the quality of the item I received. The rating should not have been listed as good. It has highlights and notes written on every page. I can’t handle reading books that others have written in.

One of my all-time favorite reads

Let me warn you....this is a book that will require a leap of faith to enjoy. In Finland (where the book is written) Trolls are real animals, although rare. A gay photographer finds a half-dead troll being beaten to death and takes him home. Some unsavory and borderline illegal events result, requiring the human and the troll to flee into Finland's densest forest. The result will leave you breathless.

Awesome and Original Page-turner

I don't give 5 stars very easily... but this book just blew me away. I'll spare ya the trite summary, but basically it's about a gay, Finnish photographer who rescues a young troll. It's deceptively simple. There are so many buried layers here. I thought I would be put off by the translation... but it drew me in, no problem. I couldn't put it down and read it in two nights. I got my fix of monsters and got to learn something about another culture... I mean, who knew the Finnish were so obsessed with trolls?? lol. I love it. So if you really want to get this book... then you want some background on this book. Google some of the articles between the storyline in this book... they're not all fiction. Primarily, Google "Pessi and Illusia" by Yrjö Kokko. You will find this is a classic Finnish folktale and a lot of this fairtale is used in this book. The troll's name is Pessi, in fact. Spiderman from the fairytale is another name used... and is actually a good guy in the book. Sort of. This book really makes you question who is the real troll here. A whole lot of power dynamics for sure. Look closely at the chapters that speak of "cities within cities"... the circles and ripples of power games that start with a seed of bad intention. I thought Martes was the real villain in this book- a Satan of sorts- and sets off everything. This book is full of layers. Read it in my book club and there was so much to talk about. We loved it!!!!! As for those wondering what the purpose of the mail order bride is in the book (Palomita)... I thought she represented the troll. Voiceless as a foreigner, abandoned by her family, and the victim of the brutality of others. And if that troll represents queers (he is rescued from a "hate crime" kind of scene in the beginning). then I'm disturbed. What are we... trolls? Or just similar as outcasts? It will be easy to misinterpret the dynamic of Angel and Pessi as having some bestiality and pedophile element... but this is a book about power dynamics, I think. Alpha males... manipulation and the passive energy they control. It's about animals... and the primal element within us all. You won't read anything more original than this anytime soon... what an awesome find!! I swear I freaking believe in trolls now, lol....

Scandinavian legend in blue jeans!

What a strange and wonderful tale! Words like "myth", "legend", and "fairy tale" keep springing to mind, but these must be tempered by the very modern setting and situations described in the story. A pretty unique, and sometimes unsettling, mixture. It reminded me of Kirsten Bakis's "Lives of the Monster Dogs", which also mixes the same sorts of strange elements and bizarre juxtapositions. There's also an interesting narrative technique in the novel in which Sinisalo presents ostensibly "real" (and some may even be) excerpts from legends, medieval bestiaries, vintage newspaper articles, and mythological texts as a way of suplementing her tale of trolls in the modern world. That is, these passages help to establish Sinisalo's conceit that trolls are *real*. One of my friends (another voracious reader) didn't care for this technique, but I liked it very much. The modern story itself is very strange, and at times disturbing -- this isn't a child's fairy tale (rather, it's much more in the tradition of the Brothers Grimm). Very worthwhile, inventive, and well-written!

A book to read more than once: keep thinking about it

Look again, if you missed it. Troll is also an exploration of gender politics. The entire troll story is a skillfully woven veil (parallel to the story of the woman downstairs) to say something very radical about heterosexual sex, love, marriage, the deep roots of sexism (that women's position is the same as the troll's, as not-quite-human) and last but not least ...it's about violent revolution. I am not surprised that most people miss this point. Despite being "simple" in its style, easy to read, quick-moving and absorbing. It's a book that needs to be taught, and a book that teaches readers how to read, as it can be read on many different levels.

Love Trolls

An excellent, quick read.Sinisalo keeps her story moving with efficiency and electricity of prose. The haunting of love, its captivity and confinement, are so eloquently explored. It is at once enchanting and horrific. I can only suggest to read this book.

This Novel Will Give You Pause!

By definition, a troll is a supernatural creature from Scandinavian folklore that lives in caves or in mountains. It is stumpy, mishapen, and can be as big as a giant or a small as a dwarf. It has been known to abduct children. Trolls have made appearances in such literary works as BEOWULF, LORD OF THE RINGS and HARRY POTTER. With that in mind, you should be prepared for the unexpected in this novel by the Finnish author Johanna Sinisalo. You will not be disappointed. This writer has crafted a bizarre but strangely moving love story between Mikael, nicknamed Angel, a young Finnish photographer, and a troll whom he rescues from a pack of hoodlums one midnight as the young man staggers home from a night of drinking and unrequited lust for one Martes, who says he is only looking for "good conversation." Angel takes the troll in, nurses him back to health and starts down a path from which there is no return. With each passing day, Angel finds himself becoming more hopelessly attached to the troll with the juniper-berry smell-- whom he names Pessi-- and having to hide his new housemate from his friends and neighbors. As you would expect, a novel about a love affair between a man and a troll will not have a happy ending. Even so, I was not quite ready for the explosive finale.Ms. Sinisalo's prose is both concise and evocative: "I look him [Martes] in the eyes. His face wears a friendly, open, and understanding smile. He seems at once infinitely lovable and completely unknown. His eyes are computer icons, expressionless diagrams, with infinite wonders behind them, but only for the elect, those able to log on." The author raises questions about man's relationship with wild creatures-- how much we know or don't know about them and what they know about us. She seems to say something about the animalistic tendences that lie deeply hidden in the most civilized of us just waiting to be let loose.Although on one level, TROLL is just a great story that you cannot stop reading, on another it asks questions about the very nature of us all.