A Death in the Family

Strangely compelling

Bill Bailey, Daily Express

Knausgaard has a spectacular gift for finding profundity in the mundane details of his existence

Will Storr, Guardian

Strangely compelling

Bill Bailey, Daily Express

Karl Ove Knausgård has started something that could turn out a masterpiece in Scandinavian literature with roots in the tradition of the great novels by Marcel Proust, Robert Musil and Thomas Mann...It is impossible not to be thrilled

Berlingske Tidende (Denmark)

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

Guardian

Possesses a wide range of traditional literary qualities in great quantity: seriousness, profundity, and intensity. The rumpus it has caused in its homeland Norway aside: If you want to read a book that matters and achieves great things, just get started

Jyllands-Posten (Denmark)

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

I think this is one of the best pieces of writing I’ve ever come across.

Farm Lane Books (literary blogger)

Makes other books seem spineless afterwards.

Just William (literary blogger)

Honest, probably unparalleled in its approach and revelations. It will cause you to reflect deeply after you've completed it, which accounts for why it has been so enjoyably debated. I think Knausgaard's memoirs are likely to have a long rippling effect the more widley they are published and read

Bookgeeks

Knausgaard's thinking is magnificently unbridled, a veritable flood of thoughts. His description of life in all its variety is undaunted and confident.

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Germany)

Between Proust and the woods - allow yourselves to be seduced by a Norwegian life...Like granite; precise and forceful. More real than reality.

La Repubblica (Italy)

A tremendous piece of literature

Politiken (Denmark)

This is the first part of Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgaard’s six book mega novel, based on his own life – and if there’s any justice the craze for Nordic noir should mean British readers greet it with open arms...as tense as any thriller yet without a jot of sensationalism.

Metro

A rare achievement. No one in his generation equals Karl Ove Knausgaard's combination of talent, style, observational skills and original thinking.

Dagens Næringsliv (Norway)

Bowled me over... The slow pace of disclosure makes this account of a Norwegian adolescence pulse with intensity

Independent

A masterful book that confronts the ordinariness of death. Translator (from Norwegian) Don Bartlett rises to the challenge magnificently

Independent

Super Proustian – and also Nick Hornby-esque – novel… It’s great… Beautifully done

Evening Standard

This is writing so vivid, it seems to alter the pitch of reality

Metro