The Award-Winning, Critically Acclaimed, Norwegian Novelist Karl Ove Knausgaard
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Room 125
Nolte Center
315 Pillsbury Drive SE
4:00p.m.
Karl Ove Knausgaard's controversial work Min Kamp I (My Struggle-First Book) is the first of a six volume autobiographical work, which caused a literary sensation in Norway and is now available in the U.S. Knausgaard writes about his family, the death of his alcoholic father and his struggle to come to grips with life and death in a raw and powerful way. When asked if he should have published the books he said. "If I had known then what I know now, then no, definitely no, I wouldn't dare. But I'm glad I did. And I couldn't have done it any other way. I will never do anything like this again, though, for sure. I have given away my soul, in a way."
Karl Ove Knausgaard made his literary debut in 1998 with the widely acclaimed novel Out of the World, which was a great critical and commercial success and won him, as the first debut novel ever, The Norwegian Critics' Prize. His second novel, A Time To Every Purpose Under Heaven (2004), was also a huge success, praised by The Guardian and The Independent.
In the autumn of 2009, Knausgaard embarked on an unparalleled literary journey. The autobiographical novel My Struggle is a great literary accomplishment in more than one sense: It consists of six novels, the last of which was published in 2011. Vol. 1 was awarded the prestigious 2009 Brage Award, the Book of the Year Prize in Morgenbladet, the P2 Listeners' Prize, and the Norwegian Critics' Prize. In addition to amazing reviews, this fascinating literary experiment has generated an enormous interest among Norwegian journalists, critics and readers, resulting in hundreds of articles, commentaries, essays, blog posts and discussions. By the time of the publication of the sixth volume, the first five volumes had sold an incredible 400,000 copies combined.
Karl Ove Knausgaard lives in Malmö in Sweden with his wife and three children.
Reviews and audio
Library of Congress Reading: My Struggle Book I
This event is free and open to the public.
Co-sponsored by: The Institute for Global Studies, The Department of English and The Department of German, Scandinavian & Dutch.
