An exhilarating story of ambition, joy and failure in early manhood from the international phenomenon, Karl Ove Knausgaard.

* Karl Ove Knausgaard's dazzling new novel, The Morning Star, is available to pre-order now *

As the youngest student to be admitted to Bergen's prestigious Writing Academy, Karl Ove arrives full of excitement and writerly aspirations. Soon though, he is stripped of his youthful illusions. His writing is revealed to be puerile and cliched, and his social efforts are a dismal failure. He drowns his shame in drink and rock music.

Then, little by little, things begin to change. He falls in love, gives up writing and the beginnings of an adult life take shape. That is, until his self-destructive binges and the irresistible lure of the writer's struggle pull him back.

'Breathtaking... Knausgaard has a rare talent for making everyday life seem fascinating'
The Times

The fifth volume of Knausgaard's internationally bestselling My Struggle series

About the Author
Karl Ove Knausgaard's My Struggle cycle has been heralded as a masterpiece all over the world. From A Death in the Family to The End, the novels move through childhood into adulthood and, together, form an enthralling portrait of human life. Knausgaard has been awarded the Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature, the Brage Prize and the Jerusalem Prize. His work, which also includes The Morning Star, Out of the World, A Time for Everything and the Seasons Quartet, is published in thirty-five languages.

Reviews
Bracing, maddening and utterly compelling -- Robert Collins * The Sunday Times *
Tremendous, maddening, addictive, gripping * Observer *
It is a pen-and-paper virtual reality; after reading it you feel that another past has been downloaded into your mind -- Laurence Scott * Financial Times *
Breathtaking... Knausgaard has a rare talent for making everyday life seem fascinating * The Times *
For Knausgaard's obsessive fans, this cycle is the most exciting literary project of our times... Knausgaard is the most humane writer in the world... He writes beautifully... It is precisely in the commonness of the lovingly recorded details that these books spin their magic -- Daniel Swift * Spectator *
Raw, fast, improvisatory, unfettered. It's addictive high-wire writing in which he unflinchingly reveals everything about himself * Shortlist *
[Some Rain Must Fall] is Knausgaard at his best... It's a rare novelist who writes about student bars and the Happy Mondays at the same time as yearning for spiritual salvation -- Max Liu * Independent *
Part of Knausgaard's appeal is believability: his books may be called novels but we read them as memoirs. The meticulous detail seems to guarantee their authenticity... Childhood, sex, love, art, work and death are there too, writ small from his own perspective, but compellingly observed -- Blake Morrison * Guardian *
Reverberates with life's core questions... In its depiction of the torment of writer's block and a young adult's struggle to construct a sense of self, both on and off the page, it is brilliant -- Anita Sethi * Mail on Sunday *



Book Information
ISBN 9780099590187
Author Karl Ove Knausgaard
Format Paperback
Page Count 672
Imprint Vintage
Publisher Vintage Publishing
Weight(grams) 484g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 33mm