The School of Night
The dark and electrifying new novel from ‘one of the finest writers alive’ New York Times
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4,5 • 2 Bewertungen
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- 8,99 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
'A damned masterpiece' Sunday Times
'An almost dangerously immersive reading experience that will completely take over your life... utterly captivating' Martin MacInnes
London. 1985. A city rife with possibility and desire. One young man who wants it all.
Kristian Hadeland, newly arrived in the city, seethes with ambition and contempt. His family in Norway never understood him; his fellow photography students bore him. But he knows he and his art are destined for more.
Then he meets Hans, an eccentric artist. Hans makes the future Kristian yearns for feel tangible. But success comes at a price. And when Kristian does the unthinkable, will he be prepared to pay it?
'Addictive and eerie' Guardian
‘Engrossing, dark and amusing' Rachel Kushner
'Mysterious, unsettling, thought provoking, unpredictable and darkly entertaining' Colin Barrett
‘Dark and precise about the underside of human desire and connection. . . painfully funny’ Megan Nolan
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Knausgaard's ingenious fourth entry in the Morning Star series (after The Third Realm), a self-absorbed Norwegian photographer strikes a Faustian bargain in exchange for success. As a student in London, Kristian Hadeland meets mysterious Dutch artist Hans, who shows him the first photo ever taken: Louis Daguerre's 1838 picture of a street in Paris. The photo contains a faint image of a dark man possibly getting his shoes shined, which Hans says is the Devil. Following a harsh critique of his first portfolio by a visiting professor, Kristian steals a dead cat from a vet clinic and photographs its skeleton after boiling down the corpse, a signature shot that later propels him to fame. Hans also introduces Kristian to Vivian, a theater director staging an updated rendition of Christopher Marlowe's Dr. Faustus. Their meeting sends Kristian down a rabbit hole into Marlowe, Shakespeare, and London's occult history. After he accidentally kills an unhoused person during a scuffle, he manages to avoid the consequences and continue his career. In the engrossing second half of the novel, set 24 years later, Kristian is forced to face the ugly truth behind his success and the price paid by his soul. Knausgaard masterfully charts his antihero's ascending ambition and the encroaching forces that eventually snuff it out. It's a remarkable addition to an exciting and disturbing series.
