Hunger
Published on 20. November 2008
272 pages
978-1-84767-364-0 (ISBN)
Description
INTRODUCTION BY JO NESBO
AFTERWORD BY PAUL AUSTER
Nineteenth-century Kristiania is an unforgiving place, and work is thin on the ground. Roaming the streets of Norway's capital, a penniless young writer searches for inspiration whilst trying desperately to make ends meet. Driven to extraordinary lengths, sleeping under the stars with his stomach growling, the writer's behaviour becomes increasingly irrational and his world spirals into chaos.
Hunger was Knut Hamsun's first novel and earned him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1920. A disturbing and darkly humorous masterpiece of existential fiction, Hunger anticipated and influenced some of the Twentieth Century's most acclaimed writers including Camus, Kafka and Fante.
AFTERWORD BY PAUL AUSTER
Nineteenth-century Kristiania is an unforgiving place, and work is thin on the ground. Roaming the streets of Norway's capital, a penniless young writer searches for inspiration whilst trying desperately to make ends meet. Driven to extraordinary lengths, sleeping under the stars with his stomach growling, the writer's behaviour becomes increasingly irrational and his world spirals into chaos.
Hunger was Knut Hamsun's first novel and earned him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1920. A disturbing and darkly humorous masterpiece of existential fiction, Hunger anticipated and influenced some of the Twentieth Century's most acclaimed writers including Camus, Kafka and Fante.
Reviews / Votes
Hunger is the crux of Hamsun's claims to mastery. This is the classic novel of humiliation, even beyond Dostoevsky * * Observer * * One of the most disturbing novels in existence * * Time Out * * An excellent new translation . . . this Hunger deserves to be the standard English version * * Times Literary Supplement * * Hamsun has the qualities that belong to the very great, a complete omniscience on human nature -- Rebecca West Disturbing and difficult as this nightmarish novel is, it is a work of imaginative brilliance that resonates in our own day * * Herald * * Hunger is undoubtedly one of the most important novels of the modern age. At last it has found a translator capable of doing justice to its immense power and complexity: Lyngstad's deserves to become the standard English version -- Duncan McClean Hunger was published in 1890 and its power has not faded * * London Review of Books * *More details
Series
Edition
Main
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Canongate Books
ISBN-13
978-1-84767-364-0 (9781847673640)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Persons
Knut Hamsun was born in Norway in 1859. Hunger was his first novel. He went on to write many works of fiction, including Mysteries, Pan and Victoria. He died in 1952, and since then a growing number of readers have been drawn to his work for its extraordinary qualities of insight and imagination.
Sverre Lyngstad has translated a number of Knut Hamun's novels. He is the recipient of several awards and honours, including the St Olav Medal and the Knight's Cross, First Class, of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit. He died in 2011.
Sverre Lyngstad has translated a number of Knut Hamun's novels. He is the recipient of several awards and honours, including the St Olav Medal and the Knight's Cross, First Class, of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit. He died in 2011.
Content
- Hunger
- Title Page
- Table of Contents
- Introduction by Jo Nesbø
- Part One
- Part Two
- Part Three
- Part Four
- Translator's Trap: Knut Hamsun's Hunger In English: Sverre Lyngstad
- Appendix: Sverre Lyngstad
- Afterword by Paul Auster
- About the Author
- Copyright
