The Women at the Pump

Fiction. Joining previous Hamsun novels published by Sun & Moon Press (VICTORIA AND WAYFARERS), THE WOMEN AT THE PUMP, originally published in Norway in 1920, reveals the narrative power of the Nobel Prize-winning novelist. The women at the pump in Hamsun's small Norwegian coastal town are seldom short of something to talk about: scandals of adultery and illegitimate children, class tensions and hostility, religious disputes, and a mail robbery involving some of the town's most significant figures. All serve as a backdrop to the activities of Oliver Andersen and his large family he and his wife contrive to raise despite the growing suspicions that a mysterious accident at sea deprived him of more than a leg. THE WOMEN AT THE PUMP brims with prodigality of invention, sardonic humor, and an originality of style and technique representing Hamsun's later work at its best.