#THE SHADOW BOOKS SERIES#

вЂњIn My Struggle the whole world is in one person but in this book itвЂ™s in nine different people. вЂњWriting from different peopleвЂ™s perspectives was the liberation that I was looking for,вЂќ he says. It is set in Norway over two days at the end of summer and, with its nine narrators and supernatural elements, it sounds like a departure from his autobiographicalВ work. KnausgaardвЂ™s new book, The Morning Star, is the novel he believed he could not write. If IвЂ™m stuck I call him and heвЂ™s incredibly good at untangling problemsвЂ¦ It would have been much harder for me to be a writer without him.вЂќ вЂњI send Geir what IвЂ™ve written at the end of every day and he replies the next morning. Knausgaard continues to work closely with Geir Gulliksen, the Norwegian editor who has been a crucial figure in his career for nearly 25В years.

#THE SHADOW BOOKS SERIES#

Karl Ove KnausgaardвЂ™s latest work, вЂThe Morning StarвЂ™ is the first novel in a series and a departure from his autobiographical вЂMy StruggleвЂ™ books (Photo:Nina RangГёy) I asked myself: вЂCan I do this or would that be to throw myself into the vulgarвЂ¦ whatever?вЂ™ Today, there is a backlash against autobiographical fiction ( Joyce Carol Oates tweeted in March about вЂњwan little husks of вЂautofictionвЂ™вЂќ) but, for Rachel Cusk, Ben Lerner, Sheila Heti and other contemporary novelists whose work shows his influence, Knausgaard blurred the border between fiction and autobiography and confirmed the paradox that the more specific your writing, the more universally it will resonate.ДЄnd yet Knausgaard says: вЂњIвЂ™m not really aware of my influenceвЂ¦ When I started writing My Struggle, there was already a lot of autobiographical work out there. вЂњWhat I discovered after so many people related to my private thoughts was that we are all more alike than I realised,вЂќ he said. He did so in obsessive detail, producing 600-page novels in two-month flurries of composition, letting memories pour forth from his unconscious and rarely revising his text. He depicted his own struggle to write great literature, falling in and out of love, drunken blackouts, self-harm, getting married, becoming a parent.

The shadow books