Nothing Grows by Moonlight (Av maneskinn gror det ingenting), first published in Norway in 1947, is sure to be talked about. It is a moving novel of love, betrayal, search, and sorrow that introduces a major twentieth-century Norwegian writer, Torborg Nedreaas, to an English-speaking audience. Under the surface of a dramatic story rich in atmosphere lurk social themes that will be of particular interest to American and British readers.

At the beginning, a man picks up a woman in a railway station. "It is really very difficult to say what it was that made me notice her. It was...