Hans Kirk (11 January 1898 – 16 June 1962) was a Danish lawyer, journalist and celebrated author, who penned the best-selling novel of all-time in his native Denmark, The Fishermen (1928).
Long dashes are used to mark a change of time and the organization of his novels do not use chapter headings, just blank spaces between paragraphs.
It was the first collective novel to emerge in Denmark, breaking with the previous tradition of coming-of-age stories and is an excellent example of social realism.
As the Pious adjust to life in their new village, they struggle with economic hardship and personal upheaval, while trusting that any and all outcomes are God's will.
Kirk himself was an atheist; however, in writing The Fishermen, he wished to show the connection between religion, economics, and politics in rural life.
Kirk attempted to understand rather than condemn the Pious movements popularity in rural Denmark, by examining how they made sense of their socioeconomic conditions outside of a political framework.