One day with … Karl Ove Knausgård

It is an ego-epic: Karl Ove Knausgård, born in Oslo in 1968, tells the story of his life in six volumes. All its banalities, repetitions, pain and embarrassment. Ruthlessly, he narrates nothing out of the ordinary – and pinpoints exactly what it means to be a human being today.

The author became the most important Norwegian writer of his generation through his six-volume autobiographical cycle. When the novels were published in the US, they caused a veritable “Knausgård hype“, described by the New York Times as a “movement”. Fellow authors like Zadie Smith, Jonathan Lethem and Jeffrey Eugenides praised Knausgård’s project as a “brilliant portrait of our time”.

On the occasion of the publication of the fifth volume’s German translation by the publishing house Luchterhand, “One day with … Karl Ove Knausgård” will be the most extensive event on Knausgård’s work to date, featuring a long night of readings, discussions, late night programmes and, of course, an encounter with Karl Ove Knausgård.

Preliminary programme

19:30 – Intro on the Main Stage
Introduction to the project
Talk with the German Knausgård translator Paul Berf and the critic Ijoma Mangold

20:30 – 20:50 – Karl Ove Knausgård autographs

21:00 Main Act on the Main Stage
Talk with Karl Ove Knausgård (moderation: Dirk Knipphals and Thomas Böhm)
with readings by Thomas Sarbacher and Aleksandar Radenković

22:15 – 22:35 – Karl Ove Knausgård autographs

23:00 Late Night in the Upper Foyer
A panorama of scenes from the volumes already published, read by Thomas Sarbacher and Aleksandar Radenković
with music played by Tobias Christl and the trio Multiplex Wohlfahrt.

Norwegian specialties will be offered during the late night programme.