With seven short stories, The Troll Garden is a comprehensive exploration of American artists, and the trials they face. In Flavia and Her Artists, a young woman named Imogen goes to visit her friend Flavia, who is a patron of artists. Joining Flavia’s group of artists, Imogen becomes immersed in the drama and gossip of the group. As Imogen witnesses the animosity of the group steadily grow, she realizes that it stems from Flavia’s own insecurities and arrogance. The Sculptor’s Funeral depicts the funeral of a successful sculptor, Harvey Marrick. When his body is returned to his hometown for his burial, there is a mix of emotions from his family and old acquaintances. Only Jim Lavid, Harvey’s old friend, truly mourns the death. However, Jim must wrestle with both grief and jealousy when he considers that Harvey was able to leave their small town, something Jim himself never could. With a similar tone, A Death in the Desert follows a man as he wrestles with his identity. Sharing a strong physical resemblance to his prodigy brother, Everett Hilgarde feels haunted by his brother’s shadow, robbing him of his sense of self. As the last story in the collection, Paul’s Case creates an echo that stays in the reader’s mind long after the tale is finished. When Paul, a young boy who has trouble fitting in, steals money from his father, he decides to run away to New York, pretending to be rich and fulfilling the life he’d always wanted. The Troll Garden by Willa Cather explores the melancholy tales of tortured artists without dwelling on the sorrow, instead focusing on the relatable instances and decisions that lead to such predicaments. Though first published one-hundred and fifteen years ago in 1905, Cather explores ever-present issues of identity, failure, and dreams that have remained to be relevant to a current audience. As her debut work of fiction, The Troll Garden marks a capstone in Willa Cather’s prolific career. Now presented in an easy-to-read font and with a striking new cover design, this edition of Willa Cather’s The Troll Garden is modern and relevant to a contemporary audience.

A collection of short stories by Willa Cather that discuss the conflict between East and West and the artistic temperament in America.

Heres a formula for excitement: Take a retired (and slightly bored) legal professional with an abiding love of his wife, Ann, a passion for gardening, creative skills ranging from embroidery to arc welding and lots and lots of imagination. The result is Troll Knoll. Nearly everything within the confines of this 20-acre estate - from its spectacular botanical display to its mythical mischievous inhabitants - is what John Morris calls, A conceptual metaphor. All of these things, he says, reflect upon some experience in my life. Thousands of visitors have followed the silk-top-hatted Troll on tours of the garden and are astounded by its attractions like the Old West town of Annsville, its vineyard maze and successful use of plants like citrus and palms, not supposed to thrive at Troll Knolls 1,800 foot elevation. Even more so, theyre stunned by the fact that the vast majority of environmentally friendly planning, planting and maintenance is done by a couple in their, Golden Years. In every respect, Troll Knoll is a world-class garden. Even those who have visited the site several times can plant their feet and see some aspect of the display theyve never noticed before. And, the garden keeps expanding in scope. Just before completion of the book, a blank wall in the kitchen garden blossomed with a trompe loeil mural of a picturesque street in Italy. And it expands into the patio with live potted plants. Within these pages youll find an impression of the gardens many aspects. And hopefully you will agree it is, a garden like no other.

This internationally acclaimed winner of the Finlandia Award is “a brilliant and dark parable about the fluid boundaries between human and animal” (The Boston Globe). Angel, a young photographer, comes home from a night of carousing to find a group of drunken teenagers in the courtyard of his apartment building, taunting a wounded, helpless young troll. He takes it in, not suspecting the dramatic consequences of this decision. What does one do with a troll in the city? As the troll’s presence influences Angel’s life in ways he could never have predicted, it becomes clear that the creature is the familiar of man’s most forbidden feelings. A novel of sparkling originality, Troll is a wry, beguiling story of nature and man’s relationship to wild things, and of the dark power of the wildness in ourselves. “[An] imaginative and engaging novel of urban fantasy . . . The stuff of ancient legend shadows with rather unnerving precision the course of unloosed postmodern desire.” —Chris Lehmann, The Washington Post Book World

When Peter realizes the trolls have heard his wish and stolen his troublesome baby sister, he sets off on a daring rescue mission.

When a power-hungry sorcerer decides to bridge the Great Chasm and conquer the elves and fairies who live on the other side, he inadvertently enables a gentle troll to reach for a much nobler dream.

Jethro and Joel, a two-headed troll, goes on a rampage through the countryside.

The seven stories in this volume were written during the ascending and perhaps most triumphant years of Willa Cather's career, the period during which she published nine books, including My Ántonia, A Lost Lady, and Death Comes for the Archbishop. For the most part ironic in tone, these stories are, as Bernice Slote observes, bound by the geometrics of urban life—streets and offices, workers and firms, the business world of New York and Pittsburgh, the cities which by 1929 Willa Cather had known well for over thirty years." In her introduction, Slote discusses their biographical elements, connections with earlier and later work, and the intricate patterns that lie below the lucid, shimmering surface of Willa Cather's prose.

Follow the trolls in this funny yet heartwarming rhyming story of acceptance and friendship in Troll... Two... Three... Four....