The Troll Garden, and Selected Stories

In this evocative collection, the prairie becomes a place of both harsh survival and uncanny wonder. The opening story, set on a windswept Nebraska divide, follows Canute, a towering Norwegian settler, as he tends his solitary shanty amid rattlesnake‑filled streams and carved wooden panels that teem with dancing demons and serpents. Through spare yet richly detailed prose, the narrative captures the stark beauty of the grasslands and the inner landscape of a man marked by isolation.

Across the remaining tales, the author moves from the stirrings of frontier life to quietly haunting vignettes of love, loss, and the restless longing that haunts the American West. Each piece offers a distinct voice—whether it is the quiet reverence for land, a fleeting glimpse of mythic symbols, or the tender observation of everyday struggles—woven together by a lyrical eye for the natural world. Listeners will find themselves drawn into a world where ordinary chores sit beside extraordinary imaginations, leaving an echoing impression long after the final sentence.