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.

A classic by the Nobel Prize-winning author, Hunger is widely considered to be the forefather of twentieth-century modern literature

About the Author

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 Hamsun'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.

Reviews
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 * *



Book Information
ISBN 9781782117124
Author Knut Hamsun
Format Paperback
Page Count 272
Imprint Canongate Canons
Publisher Canongate Books
Weight(grams) 213g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 17mm