Editions

A Death in the Family

  • Imprint: Vintage

  • ISBN: 9780099555162

  • Length: 496  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 26mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 360g

  • RRP: £9.99

A Death in the Family

  • My Struggle Book 1

One of the Guardian’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century, an addictive and searingly honest novel about childhood, family and grief

Karl Ove Knausgaard writes about his life with painful honesty. He writes about his childhood and teenage years, his infatuation with rock music, his relationship with his loving yet almost invisible mother and his distant and unpredictable father, and his bewilderment and grief on his father’s death.

When Karl Ove becomes a father himself, he must balance the demands of caring for a young family with his determination to write great literature. Knausgaard has created a universal story of the struggles, great and small, that we all face in our lives. A profound and mesmerizing work, written as if the author’s very life were at stake.

‘It’s unbelievable... It's completely blown my mind’ Zadie Smith

  • Imprint: Vintage

  • ISBN: 9780099555162

  • Length: 496  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 26mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 360g

  • RRP: £9.99

Reviews

  • [A Death in the Family] should be read for its blazing account of a feared father set on self-destruction, the boredom and bewilderment of adolescence, and its flashes of sheet brilliance

    Catherine Taylor, i

  • A masterpiece... Meticulously detailed, harrowing, oddly beautiful, its depiction of a family’s disintegration is one of the most powerful pieces of writing I’ve read in years

    Observer, Books of the Year

  • The best book I read this year...full of artistic, moral and technical daring

    Guardian, Books of the Year

  • Intense and vital...ceaselessly compelling...superb

    New Yorker

  • This suburban epic, electrifying in candour and eloquence, feels streets ahead of the comparable Jonathan Franzen

    Independent, Books of the Year

  • Incredibly moving

    Irish Times, Books of the Year

  • "A scorchingly honest, unflinchingly frank, hyperreal memoir of the life of one man and his family"

    Guardian

  • "This first instalment of an epic quest should restore jaded readers to life"

    Independent

  • "As tense as any thriller yet without a jot of sensationalism"

    Metro

  • "Readers will be captured by Karl Ove’s narrative intensity"

    Times Literary Supplement

More in this Series

About the Author

Karl Ove Knausgaard

Karl Ove Knausgaard (Author) Karl Ove Knausgaard’s My Struggle cycle has been heralded as a masterpiece all over the world. From A Death in the Family to The End, the novels move through childhood into adulthood and, together, form an enthralling portrait of human life. Knausgaard has been awarded the Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature, the Brage Prize and the Jerusalem Prize. His work, which also includes Out of the World, A Time for Everything and the Seasons Quartet, is published in thirty-five languages.

Karl Ove Knausgaard

Read more

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Recommendations

7 unforgettable fathers in literature

From Atticus Finch to Mr Bennett, here are 7 memorable fathers from best-loved VINTAGE books.
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Recommendations

Knausgaard's My Struggle: A reading guide

Whether you've been following the journey from the beginning, or you're a brand new convert to My Struggle, here's everything you need to know about the books - from the beginning, all the way through to The End...
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Extracts

Father Christmas by Karl Over Knausgaard

Father Christmas is an extract from Winter, Knausgaard's collection of short essays on the wonders of life. Translated from Norwegian by Ingvild Burkey and illustrated by Lars Lerin, it's perfect for a winter night in

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