The School of Night

Translation by Martin Aitken.

Karl Ove Knausgaard’s most daring and macabre novel yet, The School of Night is an indelible tale about dark temptations and moral depravity, and what we forget when we bargain with the devil

It’s 1985, and the young and ambitious Kristian Hadeland is moving from Norway to London to study photography. He throws himself headfirst into the bustling art scene and finds himself at a crossroads—ultimately deciding to pay any price for success in his early career, willing to sacrifice everything and to stop at nothing.

Twenty-four years later, Kristian has achieved everything he’s ever desired. Now an art photographer with a major retrospective in New York City, he sees his world around him begin to crumble as his past catches up to him and he faces his evil fate.

In a thrilling twist on Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, and set in the occult universe of The Morning Star, The Wolves of Eternity, and The Third Realm, Knausgaard masterfully spins a dark cautionary tale about the lengths we will go to achieve success—and how far we are willing to fall.