Stallo (A Supernatural Thriller) by Stefan Spjut

Paperback:  What is something is out there?

'A fantastic novel in every sense of the word.  I was enthralled from the very first page, not only because the story is intensely riveting and constantly surprising...but also because he writes in a language that captures the everyday life we otherwise know inside and out.' - Karl Ove Knausgaard

In the summer of 1978, a young boy disappears without trace from a summer cabin in the Dalecarlian woods of Sweden.  His mother claims he was abducted by a giant.  The boy is never found.

The previous year, over in a Swedish National Park, Laponia, a wildlife photographer called Susso Myren, takes a strange picture from his small airplane, of a bear running over the marshes.  On its back sits a creature, which the photographer claims is something extraordinary.  It looks like a small monkey, but the photographer claims he has taken his first picture of a troll.

Twenty-five years later, and back in Laponia, Susso runs a much-maligned web page, one dedicated to searching for creatures whose existence have not yet been proven:  the Yeti, the Loch Ness Monster, Big Foot.  But Susso has her own obsession, one inherited from her grandfather, the well-known wildlife photographer - Trolls, legendary giants known as stallo who can control human thoughts and assume animal form.

Convinced that the trolls are real, she follows the trail of missing children to northern Sweden.  But humans, some part stallo themselves, have been watching over the creatures for generations, and this hidden society of protectors won't hesitate to close its deadly ranks.  When an old woman claims that a small furry animal has been standing outside her house, observing her and her five year old grandson for hours, Susso picks up her camera and leaves for what will become a terrifying adventure into the unknown.

Mixing folklore and history, suspense and the supernatural, Stallo (2015) is a haunting thriller into a frozen land where myth bleeds into reality.  Fans of Let The Right One In (2004) by John Ajvide Lindqvist, The Passage (2010) by Justin Cronin and Salem's Lot (1975) by Stephen King will almost certainly love it.

Stallo is translated from the Swedish by Susan Beard.

About the author:  Stefan Spjut has worked as a literary critic and culture editor.  His debut novel Fiskarens garn (Fisherman's Yarn) was published in 2008.  He lives in Stockholm and has two children, a girl and a boy.  He holds a black belt in taekwondo and considers himself a reprobate MMA-junkie.

Rating:  5/5