Not Before Sundown

by Johanna Sinisalo

Herbert Lomas (Translator)

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Book cover for Not Before Sundown

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Mikhael, a young, gay commercial photographer, finds in the courtyard of his high-rise apartment block a small, man-like creature. It is a troll, a beast familiar to us from Scandinavian mythology where, through the ages, it has been used to frighten children. The troll is a demonic wild beast, a hybrid like the werewolf. Today it is used as a hairy, cuddly toy by Nordic children. Mikhael gives the troll a name, Pessi, and takes him home. The first thing Mikhael does is research everything that has been written about trolls from the internet, from folklore tales, studies of nature science and various newspaper cuttings. Palomita, the Filipino woman from downstairs, helps Mikhael understand that Pessi is like a child that must be fed and nurtured. What the reader learns is that trolls exude pheromones that smell like a Calvin Klein aftershave, and causes all the novel's characters to fall in love with one another - one-sidedly and cross-wise. Mikhael falls in love with Martes, the head of an advertising agency. Doctor Spiderman and Ecke in turn fall in love with Mikhael because of the scent.
What Mikhael fails to learn, with tragic consequences, is that Pessi the troll is the interpreter of man's darkest, most forbidden feelings.
  • ISBN10 0720611717
  • ISBN13 9780720611717
  • Publish Date 16 May 2003
  • Publish Status Out of Print
  • Out of Print 6 June 2009
  • Publish Country GB
  • Imprint Peter Owen Publishers
  • Format Paperback
  • Pages 220
  • Language English