NIGHT ROAMERS AND OTHER STORIES by...

NIGHT ROAMERS AND OTHER STORIES by Knute Hamsun, translated from the Norwegian by Tiina Nunnally (Fjord Press, PO Box 16501, Seattle, WA 98116 : $10.95). American readers will find these nine newly discovered short stories by the Norwegian Nobel Prize-winner more approachable than his monumental novels “Hunger” and “The Growth of the Soil.” Hamsun’s brief vignettes capture late-19th-Century life in the rural towns and maritime villages of Norway. The vivid descriptions in the title story and “Small Town Life” suggest the verbal equivalent of magic-lantern slides, while “On Tour” is a sardonic portrait of a penniless young writer whose experiences parallel the early stages of the author’s career. Nunnally’s crisp translations convey the flavor of Hamsun’s prose, but some supplementary notes would have been helpful.