There’s an episode in Karl Ove Knausgaard’s 2021 novel The Morning Star that wouldn’t be out of place in a horror film. Ramsvik, a middle-aged politician, has suffered a stroke, which he survived, followed by another haemorrhage, which it appears he won’t. The decision is made to take him off life support; he’s declared dead and prepped to become an organ donor. A scalpel is drawn from his throat to his pubis. The doctor is handed a saw. But something’s amiss. Ramsvik’s eyes have opened. His heart is beating. He’s alive!
This is one of many uncanny goings-on in Knausgaard’s new series, which now runs to three volumes in Martin Aitken’s English translation, with two more already written in Norwegian. The story is set in woozy, cracked midsummer. A new star has appeared in the sky. Animals are behaving strangely. Knausgaard’s narrators hear voices, have visions, teeter on the threshold of revelation. People have stopped dying.
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