Not Before Sundown

( Finnish - Ennen päivänlaskua ei voi - 2000 )

novel by Johanna Sinisalo

translated by Herbert Lomas

Published: Peter Owen - trade paperback - 2003 ( UK )
ISBN: 0720611717 / 9780720611717

Peter Owen - paperback - 2009 ( 2nd, revised )
0720613507 / 9780720613506

Grove Press - trade paperback - 2004 ( US ) ( titled 'Troll: a Love Story' )
ISBN: 0802141293 / 9780802141293

Grove Press - e-book - 2004
eISBN: 9781555847371

Grove Press ( Amazon ) - Kindle - 2004
ASIN: B001CHTGLO

( excerpt contained in )
The James Tiptree Award Anthology 2
Tachyon Publications - trade paperback - 2006
ISBN: 1892391317 / 9781892391315


synopsis
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 regarded 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 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 an ultra-hip brand of jeans, Mikael finds himself fast-tracked into a dangerous liaison with Martes, the sexually ambivalent art director of the advertising agency concerned, 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 impulses.

awards
Finlandia - 2000
James Tiptree - 2004