It's in the details

As I was flying to and from Bangkok on my own, I came well prepared - a copy of the latest Elle (the US version) and one of the library books from my recent haul Troll: A Love Story.

It was a lighthearted read, simple and funny, which is always good for a holiday book. But it also bordered slightly on the dark and weird - it was sad, it was thoroughly mesmerising. A very good read.

Mikael aka Angel - a very blond, almost white-haired, skinny and fair young man with piercing eyes, who is older than he looks - comes home after drinks and flirtations to find a group of thugs taunting some kind of animal outside his apartment building. He manages to shoo them away with some help of another tenant. And cowering in the darkness is a small black hairy troll. He takes the troll home, and takes care of it, giving it the name Pessi, taking the name of the troll from a Finnish fairytale.

When I think of trolls, that story about the three billy goats comes to mind. That troll that lives under the bridge is foiled by the three goats that come traipsing above him.

But it seems that trolls are a large part of Nordic mythology. Apparently they like to steal away people to live among them as slaves or prisoners, and sometimes take babies. Most often keeping to themselves, trolls were said to be human-like in appearance, but having a tail. This information is introduced in bits and pieces Angel delves from the Internet and various books.

Then things take an interesting turn as he becomes obsessed with his new friend, who secretes pheremones which smell like juniper berries. Angel becomes hot property but he only feels for Pessi. But of course this is not just about a man and his troll, the author works in the other characters well - their jealousy, their lust, their fear.