Staff Pick
Following multiple story lines, Knausgaard provides his usual great writing and takes on the world, but also a touch of science fiction and even suspense. After devouring the My Struggle series, I didn't know what to expect from the Norwegian author's fiction, but it was as addictive and enjoyable as everything else he writes. Recommended By Jeffrey J., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
A major new work from the author of the renowned My Struggle series, Morning Star is an astonishing, ambitious, and rich novel about what we don’t understand, and our attempts to make sense of our world nonetheless
Last night a new star appeared in the sky. The Morning Star.
I know what it means. It means that it has begun.
One long night in August, Arne and Tove are staying with their children in their summer house in southern Norway. Their friend Egil has his own place nearby. Kathrine, a priest, is flying home from a Bible seminar, questioning her marriage. Journalist Jostein is out drinking for the night, while his wife, Turid, a nurse at a psychiatric care unit, is on a nightshift when one of her patients escapes.
Above them all, a huge star suddenly appears blazing in the sky. It brings with it a mysterious sense of foreboding.
Strange things start to happen as nine lives come together under the star. Hundreds of crabs amass on the road as Arne drives at night; Jostein receives a call about a death metal band found brutally murdered in a Satanic ritual; Kathrine conducts a funeral service for a man she met at the airport – but is he actually dead?
The Morning Star is about life in all its mundanity and drama, the strangeness that permeates our world, and the darkness in us all. Karl Ove Knausgaard’s astonishing new novel, his first after the My Struggle cycle, goes to the utmost limits of freedom and chaos, to what happens when forces beyond our comprehension are unleashed, and the realms of the living and the dead collide.
Review
“A dark and fascinating return. The Morning Star leads the reader to heaven, earth and the realm of the dead in search of new vantage points. There is every reason to welcome Karl Ove Knausgaard back to fiction.” NRK
Review
“A brilliant novel; expansive and informative, unbearably exciting, captivating, at once profound and unputdownable.” Fædrelandsvennen, 6 out of 6 stars
Review
“The Morning Star shines brightly in the sky of this autumn’s new books... an extraordinary reading experience... serves up enough foreboding to make even a master of discomfort like David Lynch envious... Immersive as a new Netflix episode: just one more chapter.” Dagens Næringsliv
About the Author
Karl Ove Knausgaard’s first novel, Out of the World, was the first ever debut novel to win the Norwegian Critics’ Prize and his second, A Time for Everything, was widely acclaimed. The My Struggle cycle of novels has been heralded as a masterpiece wherever it has appeared, and the first volume was awarded the prestigious Brage Prize.