Growth of the Soil (Unabridged‪)‬

Knut Hamsun (1859-1952) was a Norwegian writer who published poetry, short stories, plays, essays, and more than 20 novels. In 1920, Hamsun won the Nobel Prize in Literature for the novel Growth of the Soil. First published in 1917, Growth of the Soil was immediately hailed as a masterpiece and has since been translated into many languages. It tells the story of Isak who leaves his village to build a farm and raise a family in the woodlands of rural Norway. 

The writing expresses a back-to-nature theme, and exalts the simple values of the farmer over those of industrial society. The author employs literary techniques that were innovative for that time, including stream-of-consciousness.