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My Struggle: Book 6

Karl Ove Knausgaard; Translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett and Martin Aitken

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

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ISBN10: 0374534195
ISBN13: 9780374534196

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1248 Pages

$40.00

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The full scope and achievement of Karl Ove Knausgaard’s monumental work is evident in this final installment of his My Struggle series. Grappling directly with the consequences of Knausgaard’s transgressive blurring of public and private, Book 6 is a troubling and engrossing look into the mind of one of the most exciting artists of our time. Knausgaard includes a long essay on Hitler and Mein Kampf, particularly relevant (if not prescient) in our current global climate of ascending dictatorships.

Reviews

Praise for My Struggle: Book 6

“As Jeffrey Eugenides marvelingly put it, [Knausgaard] broke the sound barrier of the autobiographical novel. Like life, his books are both boring and relentlessly interesting; like life, they seem somehow both very long and very fast. In other words, they’re like life. A second life, which the reader briefly lives in Knausgaard’s stead, prosaic, meaningless, yet of course also replete with the most serious possible meaning, replete with sad vastness, private infinities.”—Charles Finch, Slate
“Knausgaard explores the various ways language can be leveraged for honest disclosure and tragic nationalism . . . and whether confessional style can be a force against propagandistic writing . . . [Book 6] caps a remarkable achievement. For nearly 3,500 pages, Knausgaard has confessed, complained, reminisced, spouted off, made himself look ridiculous, and considered what it means to be candid, giving his life artistic shape while fighting against artifice. The book’s very existence has prompted eye-rolls; many of its pages do as well. But his all-in temperament richly rewards anybody who takes first-person writing seriously. A fittingly bulky end to a radical feat of oversharing.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“At last, the highly anticipated conclusion to Knausgaard’s six-part masterwork arrives in English . . . Perhaps most notable about Book 6 is a 400-page examination of Hitler, Nazism, and the nature of evil, which draws parallels between Mein Kampf and My Struggle . . . This uncomfortable comparison simultaneously explodes the purview of what fiction can do while zeroing in on the unique concerns of his narrator. Perhaps the most compelling of this epic’s installments, and an undeniably impressive literary accomplishment.”—Booklist (starred review)

“The final book of Knausgaard’s six-volume masterpiece goes maximalist and metatextual, examining the impact that the autobiographical series has had on the author’s life and the lives of those around him . . . The rationale for his project comes into brilliant focus. This volume is a thrilling conclusion to Knausgaard’s epic series.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Reviews from Goodreads

BOOK EXCERPTS

Read an Excerpt

Part One

In mid-September of 2009 I went up to Thomas and Marie’s little retreat between Höganäs and Mölle, he was going to take some photos of me for the forthcoming books. I had rented a car, a black Audi, and headed north along the...

About the author

Karl Ove Knausgaard; Translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett and Martin Aitken

Karl Ove Knausgaard was born in Norway in 1968. My Struggle has won countless international literary awards and has been translated into more than fifteen languages.

Don Bartlett
has translated dozens of books of various genres, including several novels and short story collections by Jo Nesbø and It's Fine by Me by Per Petterson. He lives in Norfolk, England.

Asbjørn Jensen