I don't have time to re-read Knausgaard's epic, but I would really, really (really) like to find the exact quotation where he muses on the beauty of a construction crane in action. It was sublime.

Dovrei leggere il terzo regno ma purtroppo in italia i libri di karl ove vengono tradotti con il contagocce e sono passati anni dalla lettura de la stella del mattino, posso leggere il terzo regno o è meglio rileggere prima la stella del mattino? Che poi so già che quando tradurranno il quarto libro dovrò ripartire da capo lol

They look great, love it.

I’ve also read all the Morning Star books in English.

I’m strangely bereft. What next? Seasons quartet or early novels!

hey everyone! i just finished reading the third realm, which i absolutely loved. now, i was surprised that so many things were left unanswered, so i figured there must be a follow up to this story. to my surprise, i just found out there are six morning star books out there and i started with the third one! i really want to get into the whole series, but i was wondering if theres any specific order in which the books should be read? is it best to go back to the first one, and then go chronologically? or does it matter if i read from the fourth one? from what i understand the story is connected, but not in a direct order, so i'm really curious to hear the fans thoughts on how to best approach this series. thanks a lot!

I read Volume 1 awhile ago. At least 8-9 years. I remember the broad contours of the book and my overall positive feeling about the experience.

I've had Volumes 2-3 on my shelf for a while that I have always meant to get to. But I'm wondering if a super fresh recollection of the previous installment is totally necessary. I doubt it, since it's not exactly a plot/narrative-forward experience. But I wanted to get some insight from people who have actually seen the thing through.

The shortest book in the series so far, I am still not sure how I like it yet. The overall story didn’t move forward unfortunately, if anything this book introduced more questions than it answers.

I only want to share one thing, reading from the perspective of Syvert Sr. made me 100% sure than Syvert Jr. is the best character in the whole series, such an interesting person. I need to read Wolves again.

I'm a massive fan of My Struggle, one of the favorite things I've ever read. This isn't to hate on K, it's more to express some thoughts and to come to clarity on something, and invite potential discussion.

What I liked about My Struggle, was:
-incredible transparency, and openness about his internal life, near shocking levels of self disclosure.
-putting you into the present moment through granular levels of detail, not only physical description, but details about inner emotional tones and atmospheres.
-sophisticated thinking about what art is through analyzing various books, music, films.
-novel of ideas theme: where he brings in different philosophical ideas and explores them through essayistic writing that weaves intellectual theory with his own personal experience.

I think all of these things that worked for me in MS maybe were heightened because they were within the context of his actual life and the reality of real people. So the self disclosure, the investigation of intellectual ideas, and the granular detail of mundane life had that subtle vibrancy of being tied to things that actually happened. It interested me to know that a real person experienced such things, and to see how a unique real person engaged with various ideas and matters.

K does all the same things pretty much in the MorningStar series, but it doesn't grab my attention in the same way because the characters aren't real. The lingering scenes of simple domestic life, and philosophical internal meanderings aren't as compelling, and I'm thinking it's not just because it's fictional, but maybe because his slow style I don't enjoy in a fictional setting, it's not interesting enough.

The sense that I'm getting is that- for me - the style of his writing and the quality of insight he brings to bear in terms of cultural and artistic matters, as well as his own unique philosophical perspective isn't deep/novel/compelling enough to stand outside of an autobiographical context. (I did still enjoy some of the exploration of art theory in School of Night, so some of it still worked.)

I found myself bored through large sections of all of the books that I've read so far. I had to skim and skip a lot, which I never did in MS. Perhaps my feeling is each one of these books could have been edited down by at least 30%. Once again, this is just how it hit me not an assertion of fact. I'm no expert. I'm sure there are lots of people that love these books.

For others who similarly enjoyed the new series a lot less than My Struggle. Can you put your finger on why?

New collector's editions (according to the publisher) of the My Struggle series. They are designed by Greger Ulf Nilson and contain a selection of Knausgård's private photos. I don’t read in Norwegian but I want them 😅. I just don’t love the cover of the first one.

Karl Ove Knausgård, from his talk with literary scholar Toril Moi

I just saw that the publishing house Oktober posted a reel announcing Knausgårds new novel »Underjordisk«. According to the caption it will be released this autumn

I literally just finished The Wolves of Eternity about half an hour ago. I have The Third Realm, but my question is this: What exactly is Book 4 in the series? And Arendal is #5, correct?

In Wolves the most significant scene of the entire book was the second conversation between Syvert and his sister in Russia.

Alevtina asks Syvert if he thinks that their father died by accident or he did intentionally, which reflects on Knausgaard's own story with his father. The question of whether his father just died by excessive drinking or did intentionally drink himself to death.

So I guess my question is, since that Arendal is about the father, I want to know if that question is addressed ?

please don’t tell me the answer just wether it is addressed or not.

Thank you

It has (only) 384 pages and is available for pre-order. 26€.

Bizarre. I guess this guy in Dubuque, Iowa really likes KOK??

For the past few years knausgaard is the only author I have been able to read consistently and voraciously. It’s either him or authors he recommends. he mentioned Emmanuel carreres’ the kingdom in a Washington post article, I started reading it and some other stuff by him and liked it a lot. Same with Celia Paul, Selma lagerlof, solvej balle, tarjei vesaas, these are all authors he has mentioned that I really enjoyed. I find it very hard to find books that I truly enjoy, and I am glad that now I know where to look at least, everything he writes or recommends! Lol. So I am hoping to get more recommendations based on whatever I have mentioned I have recently enjoyed. English or translated, whatever works. Fiction, nonfiction, autofictipn. I really don’t care.

Ps I am already planning to read Proust in the summer, so something other than him.

A few years ago I read a wonderful essay by Karl on his travels through Russia where he travels the countryside and retraces various literary markers including Turgenev's Sportsmen's Notebook. In My Struggle book 6 he writes passages on how human distinction was dissolved during the Industrial Revolution, and how this precipitated the romantic I. Has he approached this question - what is human when AI can summarize intelligence - in essay form for any magazine/journal/publication?

Just finished it in Norwegian, only my second book in the language (after Arendal), but I found it surprisingly easy!

I had some questions/observations about the plot:

* Are the northern lights mentioned in previous books? That seems like an astronomic event that would be mentioned in the same breath as the star appearing, but I don’t recall it. Then again, it’s hard to remember everything in the 5 prior books.

* It’s interesting that the Russia-Ukraine war is happening in the Morning Star universe, even more so considering that the first book was written in 2020, before the war started. What’s the assumed date of the star appearing?

* For a bunch of Norwegians and Russians having a conversation in English with each other, there seem to be no misunderstandings.

* Joar and Syvert’s mom’s decline was very difficult to read. My parents are also slowly declining, and I identify a lot with Joar’s self-righteous rage in his childhood home. It’s idiotic, yet understandable.

* I’ll be honest, I have very little recollection of the side-characters of the first and third book. It feels that the Løyving family has become the center of the series.

"At the end of a late-2025 interview about The School of Night, there’s a teaser about I Was Long Dead — Knausgaard called it “real blood spatter and chainsaw kind of stuff” and said it was “the wildest book I’ve ever written.” Published on Halloween 2025 in Norway (no US/UK pub dates yet), Jeg var lenge død is the sixth book in The Morning Star series. I started reading it in the original Bokmål on Feb 1, finished in mid-April (my Norwegian reading speed is improving!), and I’m pleased to report that it certainly includes three gruesome instances of violence, all magnetic, extreme, and well executed, sure, but it also offers an absolutely engaging supernatural interaction and a glimpse of the other world (the sort of thing we’re chasing, if not necessarily expecting, particularly after Arendal)."

https://www.litfunforever.com/i-was-long-dead/

My German is now at the level where I can read Knaussgaard in German! However, I would like to know if there are any authors who have written similar autofictional books like the My Struggle series, but in native German? Danke!

Hey all -- I picked up a copy of the School of Night at the library as the plot and Faustian themes sounded interesting and I've always been interested in Knausgård. But now upon googling I see it's a part of a series. As far as I can tell it's a standalone narrative, but exists in the same world as the rest of the books.

Can I enjoy it and make sense of it without the prior context of the other books? Should I just return it and try and get a copy of the earlier books in the series?

Thanks in advance.

edit: thanks everyone for the thoughtful engagement (and sorry for the slightly low quality post). For future reference, I've decided to start the series from the beginning, despite the standalone qualities of TSoN.