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character of the former novel, Knut Pedersen (Hamsun's real name), is more an observer in this work. His former friend Grindhusen has grown from stubborn independence to a shifty and vacillating man; and his companion Lars Falkenberg has dwindled into a small land-holder with a perpetually pregnant wife from whom he is deeply estranged. These two comedians play out a tragi-comedy that is painful through the very irony and humaneness with which Hamsun paints his figures. Norwegian Knut Hamsun was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1920.