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4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
The second book in the trilogy of 'The Morning Star', Knausgärd pares back the many perspectives from Book 1 and offers a more rich and detailed character examination of just a handful of new characters. He also pares back, to an extent, the supernatural and folk horror happenings, largely setting the story in 1980s Norway and Russia before the ‘new star’ has appeared in the sky in around 2019.
The main characters we follow are Syvert, a 19 year old Norwegian man returning home to his single-mother after finishing military service and looking for a job around the time of the Chernobyl tragedy, and Alevtina, a 40 year old Russian woman (in the late 2010s) who is visiting her father for his 80th birthday and begins to reflect on her academic career as a biologist. In the former, Knausgärd is in his element, most certainly drawing upon his own experiences as a child in that era (getting drunk with friends, chasing after girls, etc) but Knausgärd keeps it refreshing with the large amount of texture he writes into the worlds these characters inhabit.
Texture and detail is something Knausgärd is known for, but it is not just a cheap trick of adding mundanity and pointless description. Rather, he lets his characters exist in time and space while they have to juggle the many issues they face, lending a sense of realism and urgency. This is all infused with the excellent, happy-go-lucky first person narration style lent to Syvert, far different from Knausgärd’s actual broodiness in his autofiction.
My highlight is the Alevtina sections however, which so beautifully encapsulate a melancholy surrounding middle-age and presents a very tasteful presentation of motherhood and mother-child relationships.
The novel’s engine is fueled by an almost essayistic look into 19th and 20th century philosophy and science regarding metaphysics, radiation, ‘bio-semiotics’, human life extension, reincarnation experimentation and the work of Russian futurist and cosmist philosopher Nikolai Fyodorov, who believed it a moral imperative that all humans should be granted immortality and all humans who have died should be reincarnated. The novel does an incredible job weaving these ideas into the narrative, which lend a chilling credence to the supernatural aspects of the series.
To be honest, I'm just in awe how he does it so effortlessly. I can't wait to read The Third Realm in 2025.
The main characters we follow are Syvert, a 19 year old Norwegian man returning home to his single-mother after finishing military service and looking for a job around the time of the Chernobyl tragedy, and Alevtina, a 40 year old Russian woman (in the late 2010s) who is visiting her father for his 80th birthday and begins to reflect on her academic career as a biologist. In the former, Knausgärd is in his element, most certainly drawing upon his own experiences as a child in that era (getting drunk with friends, chasing after girls, etc) but Knausgärd keeps it refreshing with the large amount of texture he writes into the worlds these characters inhabit.
Texture and detail is something Knausgärd is known for, but it is not just a cheap trick of adding mundanity and pointless description. Rather, he lets his characters exist in time and space while they have to juggle the many issues they face, lending a sense of realism and urgency. This is all infused with the excellent, happy-go-lucky first person narration style lent to Syvert, far different from Knausgärd’s actual broodiness in his autofiction.
My highlight is the Alevtina sections however, which so beautifully encapsulate a melancholy surrounding middle-age and presents a very tasteful presentation of motherhood and mother-child relationships.
The novel’s engine is fueled by an almost essayistic look into 19th and 20th century philosophy and science regarding metaphysics, radiation, ‘bio-semiotics’, human life extension, reincarnation experimentation and the work of Russian futurist and cosmist philosopher Nikolai Fyodorov, who believed it a moral imperative that all humans should be granted immortality and all humans who have died should be reincarnated. The novel does an incredible job weaving these ideas into the narrative, which lend a chilling credence to the supernatural aspects of the series.
To be honest, I'm just in awe how he does it so effortlessly. I can't wait to read The Third Realm in 2025.
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Here’s what I love about Knausgaard - he abandons the authorial choice to pick and choose the details relevant to the broader themes. Instead he provides the signal and the noise. So what happens is you read a 789 page book very quickly because truth is, you have to skim past some of the sort of unnecessary in-betweens or else they’ll drive you nuts, if you care deeply about elegant, considered sentences. So you get the satisfaction of finishing a Very Big Book with Big Themes, but you didn’t have to concentrate along the way.
If someone makes the same points in a 2-star review, that tracks too.
If someone makes the same points in a 2-star review, that tracks too.
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
slow-paced
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
If The Morning Star felt like stepping into a quiet storm, The Wolves of Eternity is its more introspective sibling, luring you deeper into the fog. Knausgaard once again serves us his signature: a slow unraveling of ordinary lives, tenderly stitched to themes of existence, mortality, and those uncanny moments that feel too significant to be coincidence.
The Wolves of Eternity starts with a man, Syvert, who’s pretty much like all of us—trapped in the rhythms of life, introspective, with memories that won’t leave him alone. His story intertwines with other perspectives, and slowly (classic Knausgaard, am I right?), you start to see these tiny lives slot into a much bigger, stranger puzzle. It’s not just about Syvert or the people around him—it’s about time, death, nature, and that constant, nagging need to make sense of it all. Oh, and the wolves? Alevtina's words still pretty much imprinted in my head, HELP 🥲 Don’t expect them to behave like your average symbolic metaphor. They have their own unsettling role to play in this drama. If The Morning Star was about the celestial disrupting the mundane, The Wolves of Eternity feels more grounded, focusing on nature and the mysterious instincts that unite and divide us.
The Wolves of Eternity starts with a man, Syvert, who’s pretty much like all of us—trapped in the rhythms of life, introspective, with memories that won’t leave him alone. His story intertwines with other perspectives, and slowly (classic Knausgaard, am I right?), you start to see these tiny lives slot into a much bigger, stranger puzzle. It’s not just about Syvert or the people around him—it’s about time, death, nature, and that constant, nagging need to make sense of it all. Oh, and the wolves? Alevtina's words still pretty much imprinted in my head, HELP 🥲 Don’t expect them to behave like your average symbolic metaphor. They have their own unsettling role to play in this drama. If The Morning Star was about the celestial disrupting the mundane, The Wolves of Eternity feels more grounded, focusing on nature and the mysterious instincts that unite and divide us.
As you’d expect from Knausgaard, the narrative takes its time. It’s not about rushing from one plot point to another but about sinking into the weight of relationships, family ties, and the slow-burning questions of what it means to live in a world where the ordinary often conceals something much larger and more unknowable. True in Knausgaard style, the voices came in chapters- and pardon me if I said my first 200 pages rant scribbled in book makes me looks like Syvert personal hater LOL.
Why I Loved It:
✨ The Atmosphere: Knausgaard is a master of creating a mood. The book hums with quiet tension, as though something just out of sight is watching. The Norwegian wilderness practically breathes through the pages, adding to the sense of wonder and unease.
✨ The Characters: Syvert and the others feel like real people you’ve known all your life. Their inner worlds are so richly drawn that you can’t help but see yourself in their struggles, their doubts, their moments of joy and despair.
✨ The Writing: Every sentence feels deliberate, as though Knausgaard has peeled back layers of life to find the truth beneath. And when he hits you with those moments of insight? Pure magic.
✨ The Mystery: Like The Morning Star, this book doesn’t hand you answers on a platter. It leaves you to grapple with its questions, to think and feel your way through its labyrinth of meaning.
✨ Google, Google and Google: the political backgrounds, cold wars and internal turmoils took me into a trip after another- and yes, it does shaped on how u perceive the world.
Why I Loved It:
✨ The Atmosphere: Knausgaard is a master of creating a mood. The book hums with quiet tension, as though something just out of sight is watching. The Norwegian wilderness practically breathes through the pages, adding to the sense of wonder and unease.
✨ The Characters: Syvert and the others feel like real people you’ve known all your life. Their inner worlds are so richly drawn that you can’t help but see yourself in their struggles, their doubts, their moments of joy and despair.
✨ The Writing: Every sentence feels deliberate, as though Knausgaard has peeled back layers of life to find the truth beneath. And when he hits you with those moments of insight? Pure magic.
✨ The Mystery: Like The Morning Star, this book doesn’t hand you answers on a platter. It leaves you to grapple with its questions, to think and feel your way through its labyrinth of meaning.
✨ Google, Google and Google: the political backgrounds, cold wars and internal turmoils took me into a trip after another- and yes, it does shaped on how u perceive the world.
Help I don’t want to spoil this but PLEASE pay attention on the timeline because it sets the tone and explains almost everything. ALMOST.
Should You Read This?
If The Morning Star stole your heart, The Wolves of Eternity will likely take your soul. It’s not just a continuation; it’s an expansion—a step deeper into Knausgaard’s world, where the ordinary and extraordinary meet. It might not be for everyone, but for those willing to take the plunge, it’s an unforgettable journey.
5/5. The kind of book you carry with you long after you’ve turned the final page.
Best known I'll be looking for third book rn.