INTRODUCTION BY JO NESB& Oslash;AFTERWORD BY PAUL AUSTERNineteenth-century Kristiania is an unforgiving place & 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 & his world spirals into chaos Hunger was Knut Hamsun&s first novel & earned him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1920 A disturbing & darkly humorous masterpiece of existential fiction Hunger anticipated & influenced some of the twentieth century&s most acclaimed writers including Camus Kafka & Fante