The School of Night by Karl Ove Knausgaard

A powerful and visceral novel that made me feel uncomfortable and impressed at the same time.

This book is about Kristian, an unpleasant man who tells his own life story. He opens with some philosophical thoughts about his life and death before starting where he arrives in Deptford in London to study photography at an art college in 1985. His work is mediocre, according to the tutors, but they don't understand him or his genius, he believes. Neither does his family and when he returns home to Norway at Christmas, he overhears his fathers say that he is narcissistic. So that's that - he cuts his family from his life for good.

He meets a Dutch student, Hans, who introduces him to his circle of friends, one of whom is producing the Elizabethan play Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe, where the main character sells his soul to the devil in order to gain magical powers. This resonates with Kristian and becomes the main theme of the book alongside aspects of death. Strangely, Hans appears at significant points in Kristian's life.

This is definitely a dark tale demonstrating the worst aspects of humanity. There is nothing Kristian will not do to become the great artist he believes he is. Self-serving and contemptuous of everyone, he also uses women and has poor personal hygiene, describing bodily functions in gross detail. His behaviour is managed so that he is the one who is dominant in every minor incident with as much disdain as he can muster.

And yet I was totally absorbed in his story. Rich in sensory detail and  unique observations, this book is the work of a masterful writer. Although he can be a bit waffly at times, listing music albums from the 1980s, for example, and telling practically the entire Faustus play when a summary  of the plot and theme is enough. However, this could be another way of demonstrating the obsessive thought process of the narrator even though it was not so great for the reader.

Disturbing, provocative and unbearably human, above all this book is an intense and brilliant read, which will stay with me for some time.

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Published by Random House, Vintage on 6 November 2025. Translated by Martin Aitken.
​Advance review copy supplied by the publisher.

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