“The people in The Third Realm are as vivid and convincing as Knausgaard’s autobiographical persona . . . Enthralling . . . you can’t stop reading.” —Lev Grossman, The Atlantic
“One of the most genuinely suspenseful, alluring books I’ve ever read. Novel by novel, Knausgaard is replenishing some feral charge to the world.” —Brandon Taylor, The Washington Post
From bestselling author Karl Ove Knausgaard, a kaleidoscopic novel about human nature in the face of enormous change—and the warring impulses between light and dark that live in all of us
For several days, a strange and bright new star in the sky above Norway has sown an unyielding sense of foreboding, of agitation, and of fear. Tove, a painter on holiday with her family, has spiraled into a psychosis that stirs her into a flurry of unbridled creativity. Geir, a policeman who has been investigating a grisly triple murder, comes to a sinister revelation he must keep to himself. Nineteen-year-old Line falls in love with the lead singer of a metal band and is lured into a secret and frightening world.
But most bewildering, and disquieting, is the discovery made by Syvert, an undertaker: since the star has appeared, no one has died.
In The Third Realm, Karl Ove Knausgaard returns to the spellbinding world of The Morning Star and The Wolves of Eternity, as a cast of new and familiar characters continue to reckon with the meaning of this star. What is haunting them, and why?
As supernatural forces collide with the mundanities of everyday, and the threshold between life and death becomes diffuse, people are forced to live their lives as before while the world around them slowly changes in inexplicable ways. Piercing through human existence into the bestial and phantasmagorical, Knausgaard flings opens the gates to our most distressing neuroses and forces us to ask: What happens if the dark forces in the world are set free?
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"Knausgaard delves deeper into the lives of Norwegians affected by the emergence of a new heavenly body . . . As throughout the series, Knausgaard is using everyday people to explore knotty questions about God’s existence, our need for spiritual connection, and the fine line between religious devotion and mental illness . . . Readers who ?come to this book first will find an entertaining story about people sorting through spiritual, domestic, and emotional confusion. But those who’ve read the prior novels will get a deeper sense of just how fascinating, frustrating, and unknowable we can be to each other, and the consequences of that disconnection. Typically contemplative for Knausgaard, but unusually propulsive as well."
— Kirkus (starred review)
Knausgaard delves deeper into the lives of Norwegians affected by the emergence of a new heavenly body . . . As throughout the series, Knausgaard is using everyday people to explore knotty questions about God’s existence, our need for spiritual connection, and the fine line between religious devotion and mental illness . . . Readers who come to this book first will find an entertaining story about people sorting through spiritual, domestic, and emotional confusion. But those who’ve read the prior novels will get a deeper sense of just how fascinating, frustrating, and unknowable we can be to each other, and the consequences of that disconnection. Typically contemplative for Knausgaard, but unusually propulsive as well.
— Kirkus (starred review)Intense. . . A clarifying continuation, packed with philosophy, terror, and the beauty of the mundane.
— Publishers WeeklyA highly readable and compelling work by a major and prolific novelist.
— Library Journal (starred review)Plot lines familiar from the previous novels explore rich new dimensions . . . [Knausgaard has] undeniable gifts for creating sympathetic characters and telling involving stories.
— BooklistOne of the most genuinely suspenseful, alluring books I’ve ever read. Novel by novel, Knausgaard is replenishing some feral charge to the world.
— Brandon Taylor, The Washington PostThe people in The Third Realm are as vivid and convincing as Knausgaard’s autobiographical persona . . . Enthralling . . . you can’t stop reading.
— Lev Grossman, The AtlanticPlot lines familiar from the previous novels explore rich new dimensions . . . [Knausgaard has] undeniable gifts for creating sympathetic characters and telling involving stories.
— BooklistFerociously readable . . . The compulsion to keep reading springs, as always, from Knausgaard’s ability to transcribe patterns of thinking. His faith that access to the consciousness of others might make us feel less alone remains a profound—and distinctly literary—conviction.
— Charles Arrowsmith, The Times (UK)Be the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Karl Ove Knausgaard is an award-winning Norwegian author whose autobiographical novel cycle, My Struggle, spans six volumes which have been translated into over fifteen languages. This international success was coined “Scandinavia’s greatest literary event” by Helsingin Sanomat and sold more than 600,000 copies in Norway alone. His debut novel, Out of the World, won the Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature, and his second novel, A Time for Everything, was longlisted for the 2010 International Dublin Literary Award.
Ari Fliakos is an actor with experience in television, radio, film, theater, and voice-overs. He has earned four Earphones Awards, and his narration of Seth Patrick’s Reviver won the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration for paranormal fiction. On screen, he is best-known for his roles in Law & Order, Pills, and Company K.
Edoardo Ballerini, an American actor, director, film producer, and multiaward–winning narrator. He has won several Audie Awards for best narration, including for 2019’s Best Male Narrator of the Year. He was named by Booklist as winner of their 2023 Voice of Choice Award, and was named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine in 2019. He has narrated over two hundred audiobooks, from classics to modern masters, from bestsellers to the inspirational, from Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners to spine-tingling series, and much more. In television and film, he is best known for his roles in A Murder at the End of the World, The Sopranos, 24, I Shot Andy Warhol, Dinner Rush, and Romeo Must Die. He is also trained in theater and continues to do much work on stage.
Saskia Maarleveld is an experienced voice-over actress and Earphones Award–winning narrator. Raised in New Zealand and France, she is highly skilled with accents and dialects, and many of her books have been narrated entirely in accents other than her own. In addition to audiobooks, her voice can be heard in animation, video games, and commercials.
Raphael Corkhill grew up in central London and attended the renowned Eton College before moving to the United States to attend Princeton University, after which he completed his MFA acting degree at the University of Southern California. Raphael’s recent credits include the Los Angeles Theatre Center’s production of Short Eyes, A Happy End at the Museum of Tolerance, and Luke Eberl’s latest film, The Movie. Raphael’s voice-over work includes the Weinstein Company’s upcoming feature Lawless and the award-winning short film Wrecks and Violins.
Neil Hellegers grew up in New Jersey and attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a BA in theater arts and a minor in psychology before getting an MFA in acting from the Trinity Rep Conservatory in Providence, Rhode Island. He moved to New York City in 2003 and, since then, has made a career of theatrical performance, percussion, theater education, and audiobook narration. He currently lives in Brooklyn with his wife and son.
Neil Hellegers grew up in New Jersey and attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a BA in theater arts and a minor in psychology before getting an MFA in acting from the Trinity Rep Conservatory in Providence, Rhode Island. He moved to New York City in 2003 and, since then, has made a career of theatrical performance, percussion, theater education, and audiobook narration. He currently lives in Brooklyn with his wife and son.