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Book at Bedtime: Reading Europe - Norway: A Death in the Family

David Threlfall

Karl Ove Knausgaard

Don Bartlett

Isobel Creed

Jill Waters

Book at Bedtime: Reading Europe - Norway: A Death in the Family: Episode 1

Reading Europe - Norway: A Death in the Family

Episode 1

BBC Radio 4 - Book at Bedtime, Reading Europe - Norway: A Death in the Family, Episode 1

A global bestseller. An author's struggle to write about his childhood and his father.

In forensic detail, with excruciating honesty, the Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgaard relives the story of his life and reflects on his teenage years and the death of his father.

A Death in the Family is the first book in the six volume cycle of autobiographical novels, My Struggle. Karl Ove Knausgaard's memoir has been described, in many countries, as a masterpiece.

With searing honesty, and an unflinching gaze turned upon himself and those around him, he writes about his teenage years in Norway. Later, he looks back on the writing of this book, the changes in his life and his second marriage to Linda, and the arrival of their children. Becoming a father prompts further reflections on family life and his relationship with his own father. 

Karl Ove Knausgaard was born in December 1968. He published two novels, in 1998 and 2004, which both won prizes in Norway. The six volume series of novels, titled Min Kamp in Norwegian, were published between 2009 and 2011, totalling over 3,500 pages. The sixth and final volume is due out in English, translated by Don Bartlett, in 2017. He lives in Sweden with his wife, the writer Linda Boström Knausgåard, and their four children.

Written by by Karl Ove Knausgaard
Translated by Don Bartlett
Read by David Threlfall
Abridged by Isobel Creed and Jill Waters
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.

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Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgaard relives, with searing honesty, the story of his life.

Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgaard relives, with searing honesty, the story of his life and reflects on his teenage years and the death of his father. Read by David Threlfall.

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