The Third Realm completed the Morning Star trilogy; as a set they provide many hours of intelligent and captivating reading, plunging you into a dystopian world that is disturbing but credible. Along the way, it can be really funny as many of the characters reveal themselves to be pretty ghastly despite their complains about their lives.
'Ferociously readable. . . I still can't get enough' The Times
If no one ever died, what would happen then?
For several days, a bright new star in the sky above Norway has blazed over the restless lives of those below. Tove, an artist, is consumed by intense creativity as she spirals towards psychosis. Line falls in love with a musician named Valdemar and is lured to a secret death metal gig in a remote forest. Geir, a policeman, is investigating a ritual murder but chances upon something more horrifying even than the bodies in the trees - the last…
This is the middle volume of the Morning Star trilogy. The characters pick up on some of those in volume 1, and then recur in volume 3. Each book is a world in itself, but cumulatively they became addictive for me. In ten years I will reread them hoping that I have forgotten many of the subtle nuggets of detail and enjoying them all again.
It's 1986 and a nuclear reactor has exploded in Chernobyl. Syvert Loyning returns home from military service to live with his mother and brother on the outskirts of a town in Southern Norway. One night, he dreams of his late father, and can't shake him from his mind. Searching through his father's belongings for clues and connections, he finds a cache of letters that lead to the Soviet Union.
In present-day Russia, Alevtina is trying to balance work and family. She has always sought the answers to life's big questions, but…
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.
Experience a major new literary universe in the making
'I read The Morning Star compulsively and stayed awake all night after finishing it' Brandon Taylor
Nine lives will be forever changed . . . One long night in August, Arne and Tove are staying with their children in their summer house in southern Norway. 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.
This book was published in the US in August 2024. It is about the avoidable tragedy of communities hit by economic decline and loss of pride. They are the flyover cities and neglected towns of America, though similar place are found in many countries around the world. The book is uplifting not sad: it shows that many damaged communities have been able to renew themselves. Examples like Basque Spain and Pittsburg show how renewal is possible once people come together to change their situation. Enthusiastically recommended by huge names like Michael Sandel and Angus Deaton, it is already translated into a dozen other languages.
