Featuring an iconoclastic hero who refuses to accept the standards of his society, this novelis one of the Nobel Prizewinner s greatest works. The only son of a miserly lighthouse-keeper and an alcoholic mother, Abel grows up in a remote Norwegian village then travels around the United States. Upon returning from America as a young man, Abel falls in love with his longtime acquaintance Olga, the pharmacist s daughter.Haunted by the secrets of his travels, however, Abel determines to live on the barest of necessities and pursue a life without desire or ambition. Available in the United States for the first time since the 1930s, this controversial novel features themes that are strikingly contemporary."