Not Before Sundown

The original novel was published in 2000.

Published in the US as Troll: a Love Story. Several translations to other languages.

Finlandia prize 2000, Kuvastaja prize (Best Finnish Fantasy book) 2001, The James Tiptree Jr. Award, 2004.

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.