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The School of Night
- Author
- Karl Ove Knausgaard
- Narrator
- Rory Alexander
- Publisher
- Random House
- Publish Date
- 6 November 2025
- Run Time
- 19 hours 28 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
- Genre
- Modern and contemporary fiction: literary and general, Metaphysical / philosophical fiction, Narrative theme: interior life / psychological fiction, Fiction in translation
- Rating
- 5.0 (1 review)
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What to expect
London. 1985. A city rife with possibility and desire. One young man who wants it all.
Kristian Hadeland, newly arrived in the city, seethes with ambition and contempt. His family in Norway never understood him; his fellow photography students bore him. But he knows he and his art are destined for more.
Then he meets Hans, an eccentric artist. Hans makes the future Kristian yearns for feel tangible. But success comes at a price. And when Kristian does the unthinkable, will he be prepared to pay it?
'A damned masterpiece' Sunday Times
'An almost dangerously immersive reading experience that will completely take over your life... utterly captivating' Martin MacInnes
'Addictive and eerie' Guardian
‘Engrossing, dark and amusing' Rachel Kushner
'Mysterious, unsettling, thought provoking, unpredictable and darkly entertaining' Colin Barrett
‘Dark and precise about the underside of human desire and connection. . . painfully funny’ Megan Nolan
© Karl Ove Knausgaard 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025
Critics Review
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Inspired...a damned masterpiece
The Times
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There is nothing in contemporary publishing to remotely compare to Knausgaard's Morning Star series. Knausgaard has always been brilliant on families and the domestic, on the minutiae of the everyday and the quiet, lonely rituals and habits of personality. But in combining this with elements of genre and even pulp fiction - crime-thriller, horror and the occult - he has unleashed something entirely new, an antic and almost dangerously immersive reading experience that will completely take over your life. There is something obliterative about its intensity; I read hundreds of pages on a bus journey in slow-moving traffic, completely oblivious to everything around me.
The first of the series set in London, The School of Night is by turns bleak, funny and horrifying, but never less than utterly captivating. Knausgaard seems to have struck on an endlessly generative seam, resulting in an almost deranged hypergraphia, and there appears no limit to where he may take us next.
Martin MacInnes, Booker longlisted author of IN ASCENSION
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Knausgaard has surpassed even his phenomenally high standards with his latest novel. This dark and macabre offering is incredibly addictive… an intense but hugely rewarding read
Daily Mirror
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Ingenious...engrossing...a remarkable addition to an exciting and disturbing series
Publishers Weekly
See more reviews See fewer reviews
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Sinister and surreal...A parable of ambition , told with epic heft - and a decent place to start if you've been curious about this writer but never read yet him .
Daily Mail
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An addictive and eerie reading experience
Guardian
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The School Of Night is another startling, gripping entry in Karl Ove Knausgaard's Morning Star series. I love spending time in this ripe, mysterious, unsettling, thought provoking, unpredictable and darkly entertaining world Knausgaard is in the process of creating.
Colin Barrett, Booker longlisted author of WILD HOUSES
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The School of NIght is a good place to start for anyone who hasn't read Knausgaard before
NRK
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Karl Ove Knausgaard is one of my literary heroes
Torrey Peters
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A deeply strange, polyphonic gothic novel with echoes of Bram Stoker. . . conjures a fictive world that is at once strikingly humane, unsettling, and wholly unique
Ferdia Lennon on THE THIRD REALM
User Reviews
Book 5.0
Narration 5.0
- No written reviews yet.
Details
- Author
- Karl Ove Knausgaard
- Narrator
- Rory Alexander
- Duration
- 19 hours 28 minutes
- Release Date
- 6 November 2025
- ISBN
- 9781529977707
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Random House
- Genre
- Modern and contemporary fiction: literary and general, Metaphysical / philosophical fiction, Narrative theme: interior life / psychological fiction, Fiction in translation
- Rating
- 5.0(1 review)
- Narration
- 5.0(1 review)
Synopsis
London. 1985. A city rife with possibility and desire. One young man who wants it all.Kristian Hadeland, newly arrived in the city, seethes with ambition and contempt. His family in Norway never understood him; his fellow photography students bore him. But he knows he and his art are destined for more.Then he meets Hans, an eccentric artist. Hans makes the future Kristian yearns for feel tangible. But success comes at a price. And when Kristian does the unthinkable, will he be prepared to pay it?'A damned masterpiece' Sunday Times'An almost dangerously immersive reading experience that will completely take over your life... utterly captivating' Martin MacInnes'Addictive and eerie' Guardian‘Engrossing, dark and amusing' Rachel Kushner'Mysterious, unsettling, thought provoking, unpredictable and darkly entertaining' Colin Barrett‘Dark and precise about the underside of human desire and connection. . . painfully funny’ Megan Nolan© Karl Ove Knausgaard 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025
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