En dag i oktober
En dag i oktober (One day in October) is a short novel by Norwegian writer Sigurd Hoel, published in 1931. The entire story takes place in one day, October 10, inside an apartment building on St. Hanshaugen in Oslo. It shows the lives of the people who live there, offering a quick, satirical look at bourgeois life, especially married life. The story uses a time-and-place frame, focusing on a few couples who become the main characters.
In the opening, a young divorced woman, Tordis Ravn, rents a room in the building. Her neighbours judge her as living an immoral life, and they grow angry. Tordis's nervous breakdown causes an uproar in the building. Her ex-husband, Dr. Ravn, is a detached scientist who betrayed his wife because he could not fully commit to the marriage. He later comes to regret it.
The novel was adapted for the screen in Sweden in 1956 as Egen ingång, directed by Hasse Ekman, with a screenplay by Ekman and Hoel.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 08:34 (CET).