The Morning Star

Knausgaard makes the ordinary extraordinary. In this book he takes ordinary people and plunges them in a time of extraordinary events. The overall effect is a mounting sense of entanglement, bewilderment, and a fragile struggle to preserve hope. I found it spell-binding. I initially read it in 2021, but re-read it this year so that I could read the grand sweep of all three volumes together.

This book is 666 pages long, a number which I believe traditionally means something diabolical. The book’s last words are: ‘Last night, a new star appeared in the sky […] I know what it means. It means that it has begun:’ as we end our reading, Knausgaard sends us back to the beginning.
The action lasts two days. The star’s arrival is experienced by some 18 or so main first-person protagonists, plus hundreds of other characters, mostly ordinary Norwegians, who live through disturbing and often anguished hours. They suffer distressing, surreal adventures – one man, in his car, crushes battalions… show more.

Paradoxically, this book evokes both realism and otherworldly strangeness, in part because our world is in fact so mysterious (just below the surface, at least). It is a stunning mix of the mundane and the profound.