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 to Every Purpose Under Heaven, was widely acclaimed. A Death in the Family, the first of the My Struggle cycle of novels, was awarded the prestigious Brage Award. The My Struggle cycle has been heralded as a masterpiece wherever it appears.
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 *