The Third Realm
A Novel
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3.4 • 7 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
“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?
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.
