''On Overgrown Paths'' is the English title of the final novel by Norwegian author and nobel laureate

Knut Hamsun Knut Hamsun (4 August 1859 – 19 February 1952) was a Norwegian writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920 Nobel Prize in Literature, 1920. Hamsun's work spans more than 70 years and shows variation with regard to conscio ...

. Hamsun's attempt to prove his soundness of mind after his sanity was called into question.Fredrik Wandrup (9 July 2008
Den gåtefulle dikteren
''

Dagbladet () is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally it was considered the main liberal newspaper of Norway, with a ...

'', retrieved 4 August 2013 Written at the age of 90, as his last literary work, the short novel is part a

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying character (arts), individuals, events, or setting (narrative), places that are imagination, imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent ...

pamphlet, part

diary A diary is a written or audiovisual memorable record, with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. Diaries have traditionally been handwritten but are now also often digita ...

, part old man's

apologia An apologia (Latin for ''apology'', from , ) is a formal defense of an opinion, position or action. The term's current use, often in the context of religion, theology and philosophy, derives from Justin Martyr's '' First Apology'' (AD 155–157) ...

and part protest at the court ruling in his 1948 trial, that determined he had "permanently impaired mental abilities". ::"St. John's Day, 1948 - Today, the Supreme Court has given its verdict and I end my writing." - So ends Knut Hamsun's last book and last literary sentence. Written while in police custody after WWII for his outspoken

National Socialist Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was frequen ...

sympathies and support of the

Quisling ''Quisling'' (, ) is a term used in Scandinavian languages and in English to mean a citizen or politician of an occupied country who collaborates with an enemy occupying force; it may also be used more generally as a synonym for ''traitor'' or ...

government during the German occupation of Norway, 1940-45. Highly controversial in its day, the narrative structure is of small separate events without obvious links, but differs from his fiction writing only in its claim to be historically and autobiographically true. Later critics point out that fiction-reality boundaries elide in several of his books and 'OOP' presents some fictional elements as reality. Voted Best Norwegian Non-Fiction Book published after 1945 in the Culture and Entertainment category in the NRK program ''Faktasjekken'', by Members of the Norwegian Professional Literary Authors and Translators Association. The original Norwegian title was ''Paa gjengrodde Stier''.

English editions

*Translated by Carl L. Anderson published by Paul S. Eriksson Inc., N.Y. (1967); MacGibbon & Kee, London & Aylesbury (1968). *Translated by Sverre Lyngstad published by Green Integer, Series No.22 (1999); .

Other languages

The novel has been published in German, Italian, Spanish, Icelandic, Hungarian, Serbian (translated by Mirko Rumac; Beograd: LOM, 2011), Bosnian, French, Estonian and Ukrainian. The Bosnian translation was done by Munib Delalić, and it was published by Dobra knjiga d.o.o., Sarajevo, in 2014.

Film adaptation

The writing of this book is shown, in part, in the film ''Hamsun'' (1996), directed by

Jan Troell Jan Gustaf Troell (born 23 July 1931) is a Swedish writer-director and cinematographer. His realistic films, with a lyrical photography in which nature is prominent, have placed him in the first rank of modern Swedish film directors along with I ...

. In the film, Hamsun is portrayed by Swedish actor

Max von Sydow Max von Sydow (; born Carl Adolf von Sydow; 10 April 1929 – 8 March 2020) was a Swedish and French actor. He had a 70-year career in European and American cinema, television, and theatre, appearing in more than 150 films and several television ...

References

{{Knut Hamsun 1949 novels Novels by Knut Hamsun