Growth of the Soil

Growth of the Soil (Norwegian Markens Grøde) is a novel by Knut Hamsun which won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. It follows the story of a man who settles and lives in rural Norway. The novel was written in the popular style of Norwegian new realism a movement dominating the early 20th century. The novel exemplified Hamsun’s aversion to modernity and inclination towards primitivism and the agrarian lifestyle. The novel employed literary techniques new to the time such as stream of consciousness. Hamsun tended to stress the relationship between his characters and the natural environment. Growth of the Soil portrays the protagonist (Isak) and his family as awed by modernity yet at times they come into conflict with it.