Karl Ove Knausgaard’s series of autobiographical novels published in English as My Struggle propelled him to international fame, near universal acclaim and not a little controversy. His latest book The Morning Star (Penguin Press) is both a radical departure from that series, and a return to fiction as we traditionally know it. A group of holidaymakers in so ... Show More
Oct 28
Jeremy Lee & Bee Wilson: Kitchening
Jeremy Lee’s smoked eel sandwich became a London sensation when it was introduced at Soho’s Quo Vadis, where Lee is chef proprietor and, amongst other things, led Jay Rayner to call him ‘a rare phenomena in the London food world; a chap everyone agrees is a good thing.’ Now his s ... Show More
59m 12s
Oct 21
Lavinia Greenlaw & Mark Wallinger: On Difficulty (and Poetry)
In On Difficulty (Faber), her latest book of non-poetry, poet and essayist Lavinia Greenlaw explores the fascination, terror and opportunity of wrestling with the opaque, the obscure, the complex and the indeterminate. Is poetry really difficult, and do we like it more when it is ... Show More
58m 26s
Oct 14
Claudia Rankine & Victoria Adukwei Bulley: Triage
Triage (Allen Lane), Claudia Rankine’s new book, is an unclassifiable piece of writing, blending narrative, criticism and lyricism to create something capable of facing ‘the collective devastation of the present’ (in Saidiya Hartman’s words). Two friends meet in an art gallery af ... Show More
1h 11m
Aug 2020
Kim Adrian, "Dear Knausgaard: Karl Ove Knausgaard’s My Struggle" (Fiction Advocate, 2020)
In 2009, a novel was released in Norway with a fairly simple premise; the author would simply write about himself, his life and his attempts to write. The autobiographical novel would be the first in a 6-volume series that would eventually total over 3,500 pages written in just 3 ... Show More
1h 5m
Jan 2018
132. Karl Ove Knausgaard (writer) – The Way I Should Be in the World
Wherever you are right now, take a look around you. Let your eyes rest on the first thing that catches your attention. For me, while writing this, it’s a bowl in Big Think’s offices. Highly polished, assembled, it seems, from curved, stained strips of wood. If I kept going, I mig ... Show More
42m 56s
Oct 2025
Fredrik Backman: My Friends
Recorded at Gothenburg Book Fair, I interviewed Swedish ICON Fredrik Backman about his newest book, My Friends -- a book that almost never was. Fredrik Backman is the author of EIGHT bestselling novels, including the Beartown trilogy, Anxious People, and A Man Called Ove. Thumbna ... Show More
45m 32s