by Knut Hamsun
First published 1917
Isak abandons village life to carve out a homestead in Norway's remote wilderness. He clears untamed land with his own hands, building something from nothing in the vast backcountry. As seasons pass, he raises a family on this hard-won ground, bound to the soil by sweat and determination. The land shapes him as much as he shapes it. Weather, crops, and isolation test his resolve while the rhythm of planting and harvest becomes his life's measure. Hamsun captures the ancient connection between human beings and earth, showing how working the land changes both farmer and field. This translation by Hamsun scholar Sverre Lyngstad brings new clarity to the Nobel Prize winner's vision of elemental human experience.
Genres: family-life, historical-fiction, 20th-century, agriculture
Vibes: intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: man-and-land, man-vs-nature
Setting: Norway
Period: 20th-Century
352 pages · Paperback · Penguin Classics