Star Over Scandinavia

In Karl Ove Knausgaard’s spellbinding new novel, The Morning Star (Morningstjernen), we follow the fortunes of several protagonists—all living in various places in western Norway—over the course of a few warm days in August 2023 that will prove earth-shakingly momentous, not just for them but for all of humanity. Arne, a literature professor preparing to teach The Divine Comedy, is vacationing at a summer home with his three kids and his wife, Tove, a bipolar artist who’s entered a manic phase. Egil, Arne’s eremitic childhood friend, who has directed one documentary about a Christian fundamentalist sect and another (never completed) about a Satanic death-metal band, lives year-round on the road from Arne’s summer home and spends his time reading Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, and Heidegger.