The Morning Star: A Novel

There is a bright star in the sky and crabs crowd the road; there are strange human-like birds in the sky and the dead walk the Earth. We see these phenomena by entering the lives of nine main characters: Solveig, Jostein, Turid, Arne, Egil, Katherine, Emil, Iselin, and Frank. The novel culminates in an essay by one of the characters, Egil, titled “On Death and the Dead.” There is a great deal of suspense in this novel due to the uncertainty of the events; many of the characters drink a great deal more than most of us. Even the peripheral characters are cryptic. For example, what has Arne’s wife, Tove, seen and how dangerous is she?

The author, Knausgaard, is a world-famous phenomena himself, having written six autobiographies totaling 3500 pages. His brilliance is certain; through the wealth of his literary and cultural allusions alone, he is stunning. As the novel concludes with Egil’s essay, we are left questioning what indeed has happened and is this the author’s call for a greater connection with an unseen world.