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Zusatztext An On-the-Watch-for Summer Read from the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch "A fun, cunning crime thriller...If you enjoy the novels of Michael Koryta or Tana French's The Secret Place ...you might eat up The Shapeshifters ." — Chicago Tribune “A fantastic novel in every sense of the word…not only because Spjut has accomplished the masterstroke of writing convincingly about the existence of trolls and other mythical creatures in the Nordic forests, but also because all this unfolds in a language that captures the everyday reality we know so well, with such precision and exquisite style that the words seem to sparkle on the page.” —Karl Ove Knausgård “Spjut turns Scandinavian mythology upside down in a shades-of-gray world built for lovers of fantastical suspense.” — Publishers Weekly "This spooky novel is great for open-minded mystery/thriller readers who enjoy a bit of genre blending as well as fantasy fans." — Library Journal Informationen zum Autor STEFAN SPJUT has worked as a literary critic for the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet and the culture editor for Norbottens-Kuriren . Stallo is his second novel, the first to be available in English. Klappentext "A fantastic novel in every sense of the word...about the existence of trolls and other mythical creatures in the Nordic forests . . ."?Karl Ove Knausgard Summer 1978. A young boy disappears without a trace from a summer cabin. His mother claims he was carried away by a giant. He is never found. Twenty-five years later, another child goes missing. This time there's a lead, a single photograph taken by Susso Myrén. She's devoted her life to the search for 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. Mixing folklore and history, suspense and the supernatural, The Shapeshifters is an extraordinary journey into a frozen land where myth bleeds into reality. Leseprobe The worm glued to the tarmac is as long as a snake. No, longer. It reaches all the way to the grass verge beside the main road. The boy’s eyes follow the slimy ribbon and notice that it stretches across the ditch and curls into the belly of a grey animal. A badger. Dead but still looking. Its eyes are black glass and one paw has stiffened in a wave. The car door opens and his mother calls, but he cannot tear himself away from the animal. Then she gets out. She stands beside the boy. Wrinkles her nose so her glasses ride up. ‘It’s been run over,’ she says. ‘But why does it look like that?’ ‘Those are intestines. A bird pulled them out. Or some other animal.’ He wants to know which bird, which animal. ‘Come on now,’ she says. ‘But I haven’t peed yet.’ ‘Well, do it then.’ He presses his cheek against the window but the pine trees are so tall he can hardly see where they end. His knees are gripping a large Fanta bottle and from time to time he blows into the neck. The glass is warm and the last few mouthfuls have also been warm. They have been driving for almost three hours, and he has never travelled for such a long time in a car before. When they stop he does not understand that they have arrived, because they are right in the middle of the forest. There is no sign of a cabin. Only trees. ‘Are we there?’ he asks. His mother sits motionless for a while, lost in her thoughts, before pulling the key from the ignition and climbing out. She opens his d...
