The Third Realm
The addictive new novel from the Sunday Times bestseller
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
'Strikingly humane, unsettling, and wholly unique' Ferdia Lennon
‘Ferociously readable. . . I still can't get enough' The Times
If no one ever died, what would happen then?
For several days, a bright new star in the sky above Norway has blazed over the restless lives of those below. Tove, an artist, is consumed by intense creativity as she spirals towards psychosis. Line falls in love with a musician named Valdemar and is lured to a secret black metal gig in a remote forest. Geir, a policeman, is investigating a ritual murder but chances upon something more horrifying even than the bodies in the trees – the last bodies he sees, because, as undertaker Syvert is the first to realise, people have stopped dying since the star appeared.
What is haunting the world – and why?
As profound as it is thrilling, Karl Ove Knausgaard’s The Third Realm is a breathtaking novel about ordinary lives on the cusp of irrevocable change.
PRAISE FOR THE THIRD REALM
‘A visionary epic' Guardian
‘One of the most genuinely suspenseful, alluring books I’ve ever read. . . This book made me afraid of the dark again.’ Brandon Taylor, Washington Post
‘As accessible and creepy as anything by Stephen King and as addictive as your favourite TV drama series. There is no writer I would rather devour’ Spectator
PRAISE FOR KARL OVE KNAUSGAARD:
'Karl Ove Knausgaard is one of my literary heroes' Torrey Peters
'Addictive' Daily Telegraph
'Knausgaard retains the ability to lock you, as if in a tractor beam, into his storytelling' New York Times
‘Casts an existential spell. . . captivating' Financial Times
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The intense third installment in Knausgaard's Morning Star series (after The Wolves of Eternity) teems with carnage and interpersonal drama in the wake of a new star's appearance in the skies above Norway. The cast, many from The Morning Star, reckons with the recent murder of three members of a metal band and the unnerving mystery of the astronomical event, which seems to be linked to a strange phenomenon in which nothing and no one can die. Tove, who is bipolar, tips into a disturbing mania at the vacation house she shares with her teacher husband, Arne. Gaute suspects his wife Kathrine, a priest, of having an affair. Nineteen-year-old Line becomes romantically involved with Valdemar, front man for a metal band whose lyrics reflect his morbid obsessions. Syvert, an undertaker out of work since the star's appearance, meets with Helge, a famous architect who witnessed Syvert's father's death. Jarle, a doctor, is puzzled by a brain-dead patient's return to consciousness. Geir, a philandering police officer, is stymied while investigating the abovementioned murders. Though readers new to the series would be lost, it's a clarifying continuation, packed with philosophy, terror, and the beauty of the mundane. There's plenty here to keep fans of the previous installments hooked.
