The Third Realm: A Novel

“The people in The Third Realm are as vivid and convincing as Knausgaard’s autobiographical persona . . . Enthralling . . . you can’t stop reading.” —Lev Grossman, The Atlantic “One of the most genuinely suspenseful, alluring books I’ve ever read. Novel by novel, Knausgaard is replenishing some feral charge to the world.” —Brandon Taylor, The Washington Post From bestselling author Karl Ove Knausgaard, a kaleidoscopic novel about human nature in the face of enormous change—and the warring impulses between light and dark that live in all of us For several days, a strange and bright new star in the sky above Nor­way has sown an unyielding sense of foreboding, of agitation, and of fear. Tove, a painter on holiday with her family, has spiraled into a psychosis that stirs her into a flurry of unbridled creativity. Geir, a policeman who has been investigating a grisly triple murder, comes to a sinister revelation he must keep to himself. Nineteen-year-old Line falls in love with the lead singer of a metal band and is lured into a secret and frightening world. But most bewildering, and disquieting, is the discovery made by Syvert, an undertaker: since the star has appeared, no one has died. In The Third Realm, Karl Ove Knausgaard returns to the spellbinding world of The Morning Star and The Wolves of Eternity, as a cast of new and familiar characters continue to reckon with the meaning of this star. What is haunting them, and why? As supernatural forces collide with the mundanities of the everyday, and the threshold between life and death becomes diffuse, people are forced to live their lives as before while the world around them slowly changes in inexplicable ways. Piercing through human existence into the bestial and phantasmagorical, Knausgaard flings open the gates to our most distressing neuroses and forces us to ask: What happens if the dark forces in the world are set free?

About the Author :
Karl Ove Knausgaard’s first novel, Out of the World, was the first ever debut novel to win the Norwegian Critics’ Prize and his second, A Time for Everything, was longlisted for the 2010 International Dublin Literary Award. The My Struggle cycle of novels has been heralded as a masterpiece wherever it has appeared. His work is published in 35 languages. Knsugaard's newest novel, The School of Night, will be published by Penguin Press in January 2026. Martin Aitken's translations of Scandinavian literature number some thirty-five books. His work has appeared on the shortlists of the International DUBLIN Literary Award (2017) and the U.S. National Book Awards (2018), as well as the 2021 International Booker Prize. He received the PEN America Translation Prize in 2019.

Review :
“One of the most genuinely suspenseful, alluring books I’ve ever read. Novel by novel, Knausgaard is replenishing some feral charge to the world.” —Brandon Taylor, The Washington Post “The people in The Third Realm are as vivid and convincing as Knausgaard’s autobiographical persona . . . Enthralling . . . you can’t stop reading.” —Lev Grossman, The Atlantic “Knausgaard delves deeper into the lives of Norwegians affected by the emergence of a new heavenly body . . . As throughout the series, Knausgaard is using everyday people to explore knotty questions about God’s existence, our need for spiritual connection, and the fine line between religious devotion and mental illness . . . Readers who ​come to this book first will find an entertaining story about people sorting through spiritual, domestic, and emotional confusion. But those who’ve read the prior novels will get a deeper sense of just how fascinating, frustrating, and unknowable we can be to each other, and the consequences of that disconnection. Typically contemplative for Knausgaard, but unusually propulsive as well.” —Kirkus (starred review) “A highly readable and compelling work by a major and prolific novelist.” —Library Journal (starred review) “Intense. . . A clarifying continuation, packed with philosophy, terror, and the beauty of the mundane.” —Publishers Weekly “Plot lines familiar from the previous novels explore rich new dimensions . . . [Knausgaard has] undeniable gifts for creating sympathetic characters and telling involving stories.” —Booklist “Ferociously readable . . . The compulsion to keep reading springs, as always, from Knausgaard’s ability to transcribe patterns of thinking. His faith that access to the consciousness of others might make us feel less alone remains a profound—and distinctly literary—conviction.” —Charles Arrowsmith, The Times (UK)