Hunger – Knut Hamsun

Translated from the Norwegian by Sverre Lyngstad

This is the sort of novel which one reads with a pained frown. (Above and beyond the normal reading frown.) And, according to the eldest daughter, with whom I was sharing a room at the time, there is also “reading breathing.” Quite annoying, apparently.

The unnamed narrator is a nineteenth century Norwegian writer, quite possibly a genius, but somehow failing to capitalise on his talent. Which is how we come to find him in such painfully hungry circumstances.