AshehougAgency

My Struggle - vol. 1

Winner of the 2009 Brage Award
Winner of the Book of the Year 2009 Award in Morgenbladet
Winner of the 2010 P2 Listeners' Prize
Winner of the Sørlandet Literary Prize 2010 (for MY STRUGGLE 1-3)
Nominated for the 2010 Nordic Council's Literary Prize
Nominated for the 2009 Norwegian Critics' Prize
Nominated for the 2009 Youth Critics' Prize
Nominated for the 2009 Booksellers' Prize

“Today is the 27th of February 2008. The time is 23:43. I, who am writing this, Karl Ove Knausgård, was born in December 1968, and am thus at the time of writing 39 years old. I have three children; Vanja, Heidi and John, and am married for the second time, to Linda Boström Knausgård. All four are asleep in the rooms around me, in a flat in Malmö, Sweden, where we have lived for 18 months. With the exception of some of the parents of the children in Vanja and Heidi’s nursery, we don’t know anyone here. That is not a loss, at least not to me; social life gives me nothing anyway. I never say what I really think, what I really mean, but always adjust my opinions according to the person I am talking to at any given time, pretending to be interested in what they are telling me, apart from when I drink, when I usually go too far the other way, only to wake up to the angst of transgression, something that has only intensified over the years, and now can last for weeks. When I drink, I also get blackouts, and lose control of my actions, which usually become desperate and idiotic, but also now and then desperate and dangerous. That is why I don’t drink anymore. I don’t want anyone to reach me; I don’t want anyone to see me. That is what must have marked my face, that is what must have made it so stiff and mask-like, and almost impossible to associate with me when I happen to come across it in a street window.”

The greatest enigma in his life is his own father. Now he himself is a father, and all he wants to achieve in that role is that his own children do not fear him.

Almost ten years have passed since Karl Ove Knausgård’s father drank himself to death, and Karl Ove is struggling to write his third novel. He wants it to be a great masterpiece, but he is constantly haunted by self-doubt, and spends days making up unflattering epitaphs about himself.

From his present frustrations with his own writing and his relationship with his family, Karl Ove’s mind wanders back to the time when his father was his age, and to his own childhood. He was a serious and often troubled boy, with a happier and more uncomplicated brother, a mild and loving, yet almost invisible mother, and a distant and unpredictable father. A father whose early death spurred highly ambivalent emotions of relief and the profoundest grief – feelings the main character is still struggling to come to terms with.

The six novels of the My Struggle cycle can be read independently or as one hugely ambitious project. This breathtaking cycle has been the greatest literary sensation in Norway in decades, and the total print run has passed 400.000 copies for the first 5 volumes. The books have spurred a heated literary debate about the use of autobiographical elements in fiction, and about literary criticism in general. In addition to amazing reviews and several awards and nominations, this fascinating literary experiment has generated an enormous interest among journalists, critics and readers, resulting in hundreds of articles, commentaries, essays, blog posts and discussions.

Constantly wavering between megalomania and extreme self-depreciation, Knausgård writes about his present life, his teenage years, his childhood, his struggle to write his first book, his father’s death, the birth of his first child, his burning wish to write truly great literature, his boredom from changing his children’s nappies – relentlessly revealing his never-ending craving for his father’s approval, and his own endless talent for self-doubt.

Breaking his own life story down to its elementary particles, Karl Ove Knausgård embarks on a Proustian exploration of his past, creating a universal story of the struggles - great and small - that we all face in our lives. My Struggle is a profoundly serious, gripping and hugely readable work written as if the author's very life were at stake. A painfully honest confession, an unparalleled and shocking achievement, an addictive read, a literary suicide, an ambitious piece of hyper-realism, a stunningly original success.

Click here to download translated excerpts of MY STRUGGLE - FIRST BOOK

Praise for My Struggle - First Book:

"Complex, abundant, shocking"
(Aftenposten, Norway)

"A rare achievement. No one in his generation equals Karl Ove Knausgård's combination of talent, style, observational skills and original thinking."
(Dagens Næringsliv, Norway)

"It's a privilege to read great literature. It's an even greater joy to have the chance to write about it. And when one piece of work just keeps continuing, one book after another, spanning several years to come, well, then it's difficult for a literary critic to tame his beating heart and explain to the newspaper readers why this is so good. (...) My Struggle - First Book is an amazing novel."
(Dagsavisen, Norway)

"It's a testimony to Karl Ove Knausgård's entirely exceptional skills as a story teller that both his motif and his way of writing feel like the most natural thing in the world after a few pages - in many places also trully esthetically satisfactory."
(Dagbladet, Norway)

“Both shockingly painful and of sensationally high literary quality, [ My Struggle] further illustrates what an exceptional standing Knausgård has conquered in Norwegian contemporary literature. His prose extraordinarily well crafted, the level of reflection miles above the average Norwegian novel, the writer also brings out the complexity and vulnerability of interpersonal relationships in a way very few are able to parallel. (…) I believe the first volume of My Struggle is an “instant classic” in Norwegian literature.”
(Dagbladet (commentary), Norway)

“Knausgård dares, and manages, to write about his subject as if he is the first ever to write about it. (…) The stream of memories is never stiffened by the concept of chronology or construction: If something interests him, he dwells on it, his enthusiasm rubbing off on the reader.”
(Morgenbladet, Norway)

” My Struggle is an enormously extensive, well written exposure of the writer's private life and an existensial literary experiment unparalleled in Norwegian literature (...) Knausgård writes about our society's collective repression of death. He is extraordinarily successful"
(Klassekampen, Norway)

"This novel is an extremely strong and agonizing story"
(NRK, Norway)

”Impressing (...) What really elevates the novel is Knausgård's use of autobiographical elements (...) In My Struggle - First Book, Knausgård challenges literary conventions in a way that really makes you look forward to the remaining volumes"
(Bergens Tidende, Norway)

”Extraordinary experiences for the reader (...) The first volume creates expectations and a hunger for more (...) This book is hard to put down (...) Stylistically, Knausgård is a champion in Norwegian literature"
(Fædrelandsvennen, Norway)

"Knausgård's thinking is magnificently unbridled; [it is] a veritable flood of thoughts. His description of life in all its variety is undaunted and confident." 
(FAZ, Germany)

"In his rendering of factual events, Knausgård is a consistently realistic narrator. His reflections, on the other hand, are of seething intelligence and have an almost hypnotic effect."
(WDR 5, Germany)

"This is a deeply touching book, free of taboos, its evocative descriptions bombarding the reader with questions."
(NDR Kultur, Germany)

"There are books that will always stay with you. Karl Ove Knausgård's sentences have a magic pull that is difficult to escape."
(NDR 90,3, Germany)

"This is indeed a tremendous piece of literature"
(Politiken, Denmark)

"Knausgård skilfully explores great literary themes: all those good and bad father/son relationships throughout the history of literature, from Hamlet to Kafka, and Knausgård exploits a form which calls to mind the megalomaniac novel above all, Marcel Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past. The Norwegian public have fallen on their knees in awe for this ambitious author, and with good reason (…) Knausgård’s realism and literary skills are (…) raw and fearless. His depiction of the sorrow the two brothers experience after their father’s death hits the reader like a heavy punch to the stomach. It picks a fight with the greatest and most serious things in life (…) Karl Ove Knausgård’s Struggle is a triumph for the art of the novel."
(Information, Denmark)

”Grand literature and grand scandal. [MY STRUGGLE 1] didn’t get the Nordic Council’s Literary Prize, even though it most definitely deserved to … The further into this work you get – also the following volumes – the more it strikes you what a thought through and devious work this is.”
(Weekendavisen, Denmark)

"Between Proust and the woods - allow yourselves to be seduced by a Norwegian life[…]Like granite; precise and forceful. More real than reality." (La Repubblica, Italy)

“The recital of a life, with its banality, tragedy, disappointment and treachery […] may be futile, but in Karl Ove Knausgård's hands it is given meaning and a distinct charm […]My Struggle  has already received wide acclaim, thanks to a passionate and scorching narrative style, that surprises with deep and original observations. A relentless river of words flows effortlessly and naturally from the author, which after having captured the reader in its mighty current, brings him to the last page […] Knausgård has thrown himself into an insane project, with a disdain for conventions that only true geniuses are able to obtain: simply to tell one's own life, a life that so far is neither especially spectacular nor unique, in a series of six expansive volumes[…]My Struggle  is a literary victory.“ (Affari italiani, Italy)

“the strength of this work is that it is capable of portraying any existence as significant, in all its everyday banality. My Struggle is therefore initially a narrative mechanism in a hyper-realistic self-fiction where each and every detail is given emphasis and importance, in line with a clear poetic willingness to depict the world to own it. Certainly, Knausgård's strength lies in his detailed descriptions of nature and the human psyche. But it is the gravity and truth occurring between the lines that makes this text authentic and necessary.” (WUZ, Italy)

“Captivating … Knausgård writes with an insisting presence and creates an deeply transgressive intimacy. It’s (absoluty banally) exciting to follow the lives being led in MY STRUGGLE 1 … I can’t wait to read more.”
(Litteraturnu.dk, Denmark)

”… a writer who in a unique way manages to breathe life into trivial matters – life’s elemantary particles. The majority of novels are competently executed. Then there are some which are really good. And finally there is a minority which are dizzying and absolutely engrossing works of art. Karl Ove Knausgård’s MY STRUGGLE is of the latter kind.”
(Göteborgsposten, Sweden on vol. 1-4)

"An illustrious book"
(Borås Tidning, Sweden)

“Knausgård’s hypnotic flow has such haunting qualities … is so consumed by its ambition to reach the core of existence through writing, that I absolutely have to read the final three parts.”
(Expressen, Sweden on vol. 1-3)

“I can’t stop, I want to stop, I can’t stop, just one more page, then I will cook dinner, just one more page …”
(Västerbottens-kuriren, Sweden)

"Let me say it this way: the only thing preventing me from going online and order My Struggle vol. 2 and 3 is that I have to finish my own book right now, and I know that I'm going to drop everything in my hands when the Knausgård package arrives. Then I will read like a madwoman. Because vol. 1 was like this: preferably no break before I had read the last word of the last meaning. (...) I was hooked. (...) By the way, just in case I didn't make myself clear: My Struggle - First Book was great."
(Bokhora.se, a Swedish blog about literature)

“Knausgård writes enormously well. He writes with intensity and presence … The author has a remarkable ability to make seemingly trivial and boring matters glow.”
(Hufvudstadsbladet, Sweden)

 “A relentless book, that embellishes nothing, but also a sincere quest, which proves that raw life, if told well, can yield a beautiful story”
(de Volkskrant, Netherlands)

“Knausgård hits bulls eye with his autobiographical novel Min kamp 1”
(Trouw, Netherlands)

“A literary rock star … An unprecedented literary project”
(HP/DeTijd, Netherlands)

“Karl Ove Knausgård achieved a huge success with his autobiographical series of novels Min Kamp [.] a rockstar of Nordic literature”
(De Morgen, Netherlands)

“This autobiographical novel sneaks up on you and gets under your skin. The 43 year old Norwegian describes his inner battles in a unique and painfully accurate way, [.] What a beautiful novel”
(Esta, Netherlands)

“painful, touching, honest and full of insight. And yes, recognizable too - but it's more than that. It's like Knausgård turns himself inside out and shows that side of himself that no man ever shows to anyone, which you might not even be able to describe in words. But he is, and he does it very impressively [.] In The Netherlands he will rock on, no doubt”
(Zin Magazine, Netherlands)

"A triumph of a novel. (...) Knausgård [is] a master at portraying the small 'tensions' existing in close relationships. (...) This [novel] may well be something truly great. A Norwegian Proust?"
(Vårt Land, Norway)

”An exceptional self exposing novel"
(Stavanger Aftenblad, Norway)

”Shocking to read (...) one of the most ambitious and naked endeavours in Norwegian literature (...) the most original and promising Norwegian writer of his generation"
(Adresseavisen, Norway)

”a heartbreaking and beautiful story (...) With My Struggle, Knausgård has decided to write something exceptional. It is liberating to see that he more than honours his promise (...) Nobody writes better in Norway right now"
(ABC Nyheter, Norway)

"The execution promises to be as hugely successful as the size! (...) An unparalleled work in Norwegian literature"
(Moss Avis, Norway)

First published: 2009, Oktober
Karl Ove Knausgård: Biography and bibliography

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