Book description
Growth of the Soil is a classic of European literature, one of the
seminal novels of the twentieth century. It is the story of Isak, a
worker of the land, with its roots in man's deepest myths about the
struggle to cultivate the land and make it fertile. The novel moves at
the pace of the passing seasons, and with the growth of the crops, on
which the characters' lives depend. Hamsun's themes of individual
freedom, and the fundamental human need to reconcile man with the
natural world, speak even more resonantly now than when the novel was
first published.
Born in 1859, Knut Hamsun's early works were forceful and polemic
before he became more compassionate in his later work, drawing
inspiration from the country people of his native Norway. He was awarded
the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1920 for Growth of the Soil. He has
been recognised as one of the greatest literary figures of the twentieth
century.
