Synopses & Reviews
In a small Norwegian coastal town, society's carefully woven threads begin to unravel when an unsettling stranger named Johan Nagel arrives. With an unsparing and often brutal insight into human nature, Nagel draws out the seemingly innocent townsfolk, exposing their darkest instincts and suppressed desires. At once arrogant and unassuming, righteous and depraved, sane and truly mad, Nagel seduces the entire community even as he turns it on end--before disappearing as suddenly as he arrived.
Knut Hamsun (1859-1952) was a Norwegian novelist, poet, and playwright. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920.
Review
"
Mysteries is as immediate and haunting as last night's dreams (or nightmares)."--Christopher Lehmann-Haupt,
The New York Times"One doubts that a more touching and powerful picture of a man in the grip of schizophrenia has ever been produced...Nagel is a masterful creation and Mysteries is one of the great seminal works of nineteenth century European literature."--Raymond Rosenthal, Saturday Review
"Mysteries is closer to me than any other book I have read. We enjoy every tragic moment of this hopeless love affair. It becomes our very own."--Henry Miller, The New York Times Book Review
"Hamsun, perhaps more than any other writer, prefigured the techniques and attitudes of Modernism."--P.S. Prescott, Newsweek
About the Author
Knut Hamsun (1859-1952) was a Norwegian novelist, poet, and playwright. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920.