It is difficult to hear the name of Karl Ove Knausgård (Oslo, 1968) and not associate it with My Struggle. Those six autobiographical volumes became one of the literary phenomena of the 21st century. Of course, exposing in detail both his daily and private life and that of some of his closest circle earned him several court cases. Now he returns to literature with a very different proposal, La estrella de la mañana, a novel in which the lives of its protagonists take a turn when a glow illuminates the sky during a summer night.
It has taken him nine years to return to fiction.
To write a novel you have to feel that you are ready and I, after finishing the volumes of La meva lucha, was not. Throughout this time I have been writing stories, some essays and even a book about football. But getting down to writing a novel was a task I didn’t feel like doing. why now I heard the call, I imagine.
So exhausted that he left to write those autobiographical novels?
If I had known the impact they would have, I would not have written them. I wanted to do a little experiment and I thought it wouldn’t interest anyone. But it was all amplified to huge proportions and that was the problem.
People close to him withdrew the word.
The hardest part was writing about other people. But, finally, I’ve done it. Of course, I don’t want to repeat it. It was too painful. Fiction is kinder.
But it doesn’t quite detach itself from reality. Readers who know him will be able to see traits in some characters that correspond to his life.
I think this is something that happens to most of us writers. We infuse our experiences into what we write. And what I find most interesting about all this is to see how the characters I have created myself feel my feelings very differently. Of course, some have cost me more to create than others.
Like for example?
La Solveig She is the best woman I will ever meet. It had been a long time since I wrote about myself and putting myself in the shoes of a nurse who radiates kindness was quite a challenge. It is not easy to give voice to someone different and above another gender.
It’s quite a challenge.
Certainly. Although my biggest challenge has always been patience. I don’t have much. And it’s a problem because to write and commit to a novel you need a lot.
But he succeeded.
What choice. I don’t know how to live without writing.
What was your inspiration? Both the mysterious star and the plagues that follow each other throughout the book have something biblical.
I will not deny that there is some point from the Bible. In fact, one of the stories is about Abraham and Isaac. But then I was also inspired by a book from the 15th or 16th century that talks about phenomena that have once been observed: red sky that looks like blood or hundreds of birds circling aimlessly. I thought it would be a good idea to include these ideas that are so visual and to which we continue to find no explanation.
Some time ago he said that he was writing a book about the devil. Did you mean this one?
This book is part of a series. I have finished three and am writing the fourth. They all talk to one extent or another about the devil and little by little I am getting closer to this concept.
Death is also present in most stories.
It is something that unites us all. We will die at some point. There are no exceptions for age, class, race or gender. What we don’t know is when. This book and the following encourage the reader to ask some questions. What if death didn’t exist and we were immortal? There are many researchers who, with technology, are trying to find the magic formula to not age and live longer. But would that be better for humanity and the planet? It’s a debate that interests me a lot.
Is it something you think about often?
The truth is, no. Thinking about death all the time would drive us all crazy. But I was interested in approaching this idea from the writing and trying to make the reader think.
Are you planning a long-term essay on this topic, beyond what the novel already includes?
I think that for the next few years I will only think about making novels. Autofiction and the essay have given me many headaches and I am already a 54-year-old gentleman. I’m not into many parties.
