Best book I have ever read, emotional, gripping, thrilling, devastating, empathetic all over beautifully crafted. From beginning to end and beyond, I'll think about this often.

I am new to Knausgard, being the only person on earth who hasn't read My Struggle. I have to after reading this brilliant book.

Kristian Hedeland is a photographer from Norway, living and going to school in London to study photography. His work is quite mediocre until he meets Hans in a pub. Hans tells him about Marlowe and Faust and Shakespeare, befriending him and drawing him in to his circle of odd friends. Then one night, on his way to see a woman he doesn't really like that much Kristian has an altercation with a homeless man and his life changes forever.

The School of Night is based on the play of Doctor Faustus by Marlowe, which I read many decades ago but the basic principle is that Faust is ordinary until he meets Mephistopheles who persuades Faust to give up his soul for greatness. Faust agrees but forgets that there will be a terrible price to pay for success.

The writing is excellent and the character of Kristian is so utterly devoid of any humanity that he is very hard to like but compelling to read. I would like to read it all again immediately. Kristian doesn't fool his parents who see his narcissism early on and his ego is ever-present throughout his interactions with the lesser mortals he finds himself having to deal with.

I should warn you that there are some very upsetting parts that deal with suicide, murder and death of a child.

This book is a warning of what can happen if you make deals with the devil. But even though Kristian has a vile character I would not wish his fate on anyone.

An exceptionally great read. Very highly recommended.

Thankyou to Netgalley and Random House UK for the advance review copy. Very much appreciated.

I had a feeling this book would be an unusually long and demanding read, and I was wary of taking it on. I first tried the author’s autobiography but struggled to get through it, deciding to return later. This novel was said to be among his more accessible works, and I wanted to see what all the excitement was about.

The story is a first-person narrative told by a photographer, recounting his life from his early twenties over roughly twenty-five years. It serves as a kind of homage to Marlowe’s *Faustus*, with the central Faustian bargain shaping much of the plot. The book explores many themes — the inner workings of a narcissistic personality, the price one might pay for true greatness, and the role of art, particularly photography, in our lives.

The author’s talent is undeniable — his erudition is remarkable, and the way he weaves a tapestry of feeling and reflection is almost unique (most reminiscent of John Fowles; in fact, the novel often echoes *The Magus*). Even the sections that feel overwrought remain compelling. As one critic put it (and I’m paraphrasing), even when the author’s writing is dull, it’s still interesting. There’s a great deal to unpack here, and I’m certain this book will stay with me for a long time — much like *The Magus* did.

My overall impression is complicated: I oscillated between two and five stars. On one hand, it’s a difficult and, at times, unpleasant read. The protagonist is despicable, and his actions are unpardonable. On the other, the atmosphere and emotional intensity are remarkable — they demonstrate the author’s rare ability to create literature that transcends the everyday and makes the reader reflect, question, and learn about themselves.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I just finished this book after two days of feverish reading. Knausgaard does that to me every time, I find myself pulled irresistibly into his world.

One does not want to trip over hyperbole and platitudes but Knausgaard is surely one of the greatest living writers and he churns out his books at a rate which whets the appetite but does not fall into the quantity over quality side of the equation (King take note).

This books is nominally part of the Morningstar series but the link to is it tenuous at best. But still, Knausgaard beguiles, he pulls you in and before you know it a hundred pages have been devoured, then another coffee is required then another ten minutes then one more chapter and so on.. This is what he does best and does it in a way that only the best writers do. Which, given the amount of space he devotes to the quotidian is an unusual skill to have.

The story is loosely based around Faustus, a deal with the devil sort of thing. Kristian, the main character, comes to London from Norway in the mid 1980's to study photography at art school. He struggles at first to break free of the mould and to produce art worth the effort but, after a lot of hand-wringing, he smashes through to another level of creativity.

Of course, this comes at a cost which slowly builds to its final denouement.

I won't drop spoilers here but, if you have read Knausgaard before you know what to expect and this books delivers in spades. The theorising, the sense of place, the barely contained narcissism of the main character, they are all here and delivered in that uniquely Knausgaardian way which many people find so compelling.

A brilliant read.

I have to admit that I came to this book without knowing that the author is a Norwegian cultural icon, has written over twenty books and is critically admired, even feted by the critics, so this is an original review!

The story opens with a photography student, Kristian, living in London in the 1980s. He is self obsessed, self deceiving, narcissistic and, generally, rather unpleasant. He’s not a good photographer either, although he does have better taste in his choice of music which is described, like everything else, in minute detail. He is also antisocial and has fallen out with his family.

However, by the second half of the book he is a famous and highly successful photographer curating a retrospective exhibition in New York, so what has happened?

The link is something to do with Marlowe, Dr Faustus, an interest in the occult, an encounter with a down and out, and a strange man called Hans who becomes weirdly linked with Kristians life. It all leads to a rather nasty ending!

However, it has to be said that the story is always intriguing and superbly written. Things move at their own pace, so we can clearly see that Kristian is a so-so photographer at the same time as he rubbishes teachers and fellow students, and believes himself to be really talented. His failed and dismissive attempts at relationships create an unsettling picture of someone at the margins of living a normal life. The book draws you in!

In some ways, the first half of the book in Deptford bedsit land is more engaging than the years of success. He now has a wife, Yelena, and a child, Leo but the wife is simply a convenience to provide the child which the ending requires and you will have to decide for yourself whether that works.

Whatever you think, this is a profound and interesting novel which will leave you with questions and uncertainties but remains a compulsive and fascinating read.

Karl Ove Knausgaard's Morning Star' sequence is the most compelling and brilliantly executed set of modern narratives since, well, probably the same author's 'My Struggle' books. Each book seems stronger to me than the last and not just in the intriguing intensification of the universe each new volume effects, but in the sheer literary thrill of witnessing the development of the visionary writer Knausgaard unquestionably is. 'Universe' is actually the word the publisher uses in relation to 'The School of Night' (as in 'part of the "Morning Star" Universe') as a clarification and perhaps as a reassurance, despite or perhaps because of its quotidian association with comic books and superhero films. Anyone familiar with the earlier books would almost immediately recognise it as such though, I think. There's the same sense of Dostoyevskian psychological and existential preoccupation, the same tangible feel of the occult and the same extraordinary momentum. Essentially Knausgaard's take on the Faustian pact, the story of the rise of Kristian Hadeland, a compellingly realised amoral narcissist, who despite unpromising beginnings at art school rise to become a successful and acclaimed photographer, it's the most riveting of the novels so far purely as a story. Even at its most fanciful there is a horrifying reality, not just in its characterisation or its chillingly accurate picture of an artistic and cultural milieu in the book's later sections, but Knausgaard absolutely has us believing in the terrifying implications of the supernatural elements.

That's probably enough without spoiling the book overly. I'd add that I loved the usual kaleidoscope of ideas, which had my head spinning, the Marlovian associations and the tangential appearance of at least one character from the previous books. Less tangentially, you may also recognise the name Kristian Hadeland from 'The Morning Star' and 'The Wolves of Eternity', but I'll say no more than that.

Easily the strongest new novel I've read in 2025.

Karl Ovë Knausgaard's 'The School of Night' is part of a series - the fourth in the Morning Star series - but stands perfectly well on its own. It is much more accessible than many of Knausgaard's previous works and is a Faustian tale of a thoroughly despicable man's rise and fall. It is thoroughly gripping and pulls you deep into its world. I didn't want to put it down - and it's not a short book. It grips from the outset, in a wonderfully unsettling and somewhat mysterious way. It took me right to the end to feel I really understood what was going on and I loved that. I didn't even want to try and work it out along the way, I was so transported into the life of this dreadful, unprincipled, ruthless man. I hope I never meet anyone like him but boy is he fascinating. Much as you might want to try and work him out, he's so far from the norm that .it felt more realistic just to let the story proceed.

'The School of Night' (in translation, a nod to Marlowe of course) is clever, immersive stuff, unsettling, disturbing and yet just so gripping. It's not horror but it makes the reader uneasy - something I would usually avoid. But I can't recommend this highly enough. Near perfect.

Knausgaard is a master at bringing complex characters to life. The fourth in his series, thst reads like a standalone psychological study analysis of a dark multilayered male photographer who is internally disintegrating.
Knausgaard's slow reflective writing style blends into this darkness in a stunning way.
Maybe his best yet?