ARENDAL

The year is 1976. Syvert Løyning is on his way home to his wife and two sons, Syvert and Joar, after a business trip. When his car breaks down outside his hometown of Arendal, he is forced to spend the night in the city. It is winter and bitterly cold. The ocean has frozen over, and ice spreads out away from the shore, so thick that cars can drive on it. There, with home so close and yet out of reach, Syvert is caught up in memories of his affair. As he wanders the dark streets, something is shifting inexorably and dangerously around him, but also from within. A point of no return approaches.

An otherworldly story of longing and loneliness, Arendal depicts Syvert’s breakdown accompanied by a dream vision, both deepening and expanding the “engrossing, dark, and amusing” (Rachel Kushner) Morning Star series. Hypnotically, Knausgaard writes about communing with the dead, fire and ice, dizzying starry skies, and a man in search of consolation.