Karl Ove Knausgård is a Norwegian author who has been described as one of the 21st century’s greatest literary sensations. Knausgård was born in Oslo but was raised in Tromøya and in Kristiansand and went to university in Bergen. He held various jobs while trying to become a writer. He eventually moved to Stockholm, Sweden, and published his first novel in 1998.
While Knausgård´s first books were well received, it was the six-volume My Struggle (Min Kamp) series of autobiographical novels that made Knausgård a household name in Norway. Published from 2009 to 2011, the books were hugely successful home and abroad, but also caused much controversy.
The controversy was caused partly because the Norwegian title of the book, Min Kamp, is the same as the Norwegian title of Hitler’s Mein Kampf, and partly because some have suggested Knausgård goes too far in exposing the private lives of his friends and family.
Since the completion of the My Struggle series in 2011, he has also published an autobiographical series entitled The Seasons Quartet, as well as critical work on the art of Edvard Munch.
