Karl Ove Knausgaard - The School of Night Book Club

If you’ve ever been in the shop and asked me for a recommendation, you’ll know I’m not shy about my love for the Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgaard. The School of Night is the fourth English translation in his Morning Star series (now six titles in Norwegian). Within the ever-collapsing universe of Morning Star, this book stands—so far—as a largely standalone reimagining of Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. Its title is taken from Marlowe’s circle of atheists and free-thinkers known as The School of Night. You don’t need to have read any of the other books in the series to enjoy this one.

The novel’s delightfully unlikeable protagonist, Kristian Hadeland, is an ambitious, self-centred Norwegian photography student living in London in 1985 to attend art school. He produces terrible, derivative work and obsessively catalogues his moody post-punk record collection, all while alienating his family, professors, potential partners, and friends. When he meets Hans, an eccentric Dutch artist, in a bar, his artistic vision begins to expand in ways he never imagined. Kristian’s grotesque inner world is suddenly channelled coherently and passionately into his photography. But Kristian has done something unthinkable, and in this Faustian pact, there develops a debt to be paid.

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