Sult (1890)

A penniless writer walks Kristiania trying to preserve his pride while his body and judgement become less dependable. His bizarre decisions can be funny a moment before they become painful. Sverre Lyngstad's translation, available from Canongate, is the recommended English version. Published in 1890, this is a city novel organised around an unstable consciousness rather than a reassuring social panorama; do not expect deprivation to make its narrator wise or likeable.