Editor Lynge
Knut Hamsun
Translated by Rick Schober
October 10, 2023
ISBN 9798218269876 / Paperback / 188 pages / $19.99

The first-ever English translation of Editor Lynge (original Norwegian title: Redaktør Lynge), the third novel by Knut Hamsun, recipient of the 1920 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Alexander Lynge is a ruthless newspaper editor who will stop at nothing to increase his paper's readership. He takes budding writer Fredrik Ihlen under his wing solely to get closer to his sister, Charlotte, who is romantically involved with Ihlen's best friend, the radical Endre Bondesen. To complicate matters, Leo Højbro, a boarder in the Ihlen household, harbors his own secret love for Charlotte, going so far as to borrow money with forged documents from the bank where he works in order to buy her a bicycle.

These intersecting desires and deceptions unfold against the backdrop of the political unrest sweeping across Scandinavia in the late nineteenth century. Part social satire, part psychological study, Editor Lynge reveals Hamsun's early mastery of character, intrigue, and the moral ambiguities that define modern life.