The Growth of the Soil

I recently finished reading The Growth of the Soil, a Nobel prize-winning epic novel written in 1917 by an odd man. The novel is remarkable for its lack of a plot. It starts out as the story of a single man moving into the wilderness to settle. It ends up the story of an entire settlement community complete with neighborhood rivalries, family squabbles, and realistically complex romances. Almost everything in between is a chronological account of the growth of the soil -- the growth of a community. I found it oddly satisfying.