Hunger cover art

Hunger

 Preview

Get 30 days of Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30-day free trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options
Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

About this listen

Verging on death, a starving, destitute writer navigates the cold and indifferent city of Kristiania in search of his next meal. Frenzied and fevered, he chews on stale bread, devours scraps of wood, and bites his own finger, sleeping under the stars in old, pungent blankets, until one day he is able to sell an article and buy some food - only for the cycle then to repeat itself....

Knut Hamsun's first novel, Hunger, won the author the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920 and went on to influence the likes of Albert Camus, Franz Kafka, Charles Bukowski, and Henry Miller. This recording uses the 1996 translation by Sverre Lyngstad, which is considered to be the definitive version in English.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2019 Naxos Audiobooks (P)2019 Naxos Audiobooks Classics Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction
All stars
Most relevant
His step by step journey and thought processes revealed disorganised chaos and a mad determination to lose…or so it seemed to me…
I had to keep listening. The reader was perfect in his rendition.
Highly recommend

Emptiness Fulfilled

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It was sometimes hard to believe Hunger was first published in 1890 while listening to this: it seemed so modern. Admittedly some of this is to do with the translation, which is immensely fresh and readable, but also because the style and content differed so from the typical novels of the era. It involves a young writer's descent into poverty and starvation, and details his psychology and actions during the process. It is harrowing, but also funny and lively, and despite the bleakness never less than scintillating. I would describe it as a hypnotic journey for those with an interest in existential or philosophical literature (Kafka, Camus, Sartre, et al.), but this should not suggest that it is in any way dense or didactic: it is above all other things a highly readable and affecting examination of a man's fracturing psyche and failing body, and I would recommend it to anyone seeking good, and historically important, literature.

I must also mention how great the reader was: I felt that his tone was perfect for the character, and that his pace and rhythm enhanced the above mentioned hypnotic nature of the text, while also accentuating the humour and pathos. Thanks to Naxos for continually bringing these kinds of classic, but lesser read, texts to audiobook, and for consistently using excellent readers.

Hypnotic descent into abjection

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
would highly recommend. I found a lot of parallels with down and out in Paris & London by Orwell. a really well written novel with a lot of fun, and thought provoking Interblnal monologue

a classic

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
could occasionally be heavy going and even repetitive, but rises above the dangers of describing the monotonous and banal to weave a magical spell of the despair and desperation of hunger.

Hunger and Madness

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Lugubrious insistence on protagonist’s stubborn pride & blindness to reality they inhibits his ability to succeed and escape

Monotone

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews