Karl Ove Knausgaard is the author of the six-volume autobiographical novel My Struggle. Translated into more than fifteen languages, My Struggle recounts the major events in Knausgaard’s life— from his childhood in rural Norway, to the death of his father, finding his voice as a writer, and becoming a father himself—as well as minutiae of the everyday. The final volume, Book Six, is a meticulous account of Knausgaard’s relationships with his wife, children, and closest friends. In this installment, he vacillates between ambition and vulnerability, and grapples with shame, pain, and fixation with precision. Knausgaard is also the author of an autobiographical quartet based on the four seasons—Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring—and the novels Out of This World and A Time for Everything.
Lydia Kiesling is the editor of the online literary magazine The Millions. Her essays and criticism have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Guardian, and Slate, and have been recognized in The Best American Essays 2016. Her debut novel, The Golden State, was published September 2018.