The School of Night: A Novel

· Penguin
Ebook
512
Pages
Eligible
This book will become available on September 16, 2025. You will not be charged until it is released.

About this ebook

Karl Ove Knausgaard’s most daring and macabre novel yet, The School of Night is an indelible tale about dark temptations and moral depravity, and what we forget when we bargain with the devil

It’s 1985, and the young and ambitious Kristian Hadeland is moving from Norway to London to study photography. He throws himself headfirst into the bustling art scene and finds himself at a crossroads—ultimately deciding to pay any price for success in his early career, willing to sacrifice everything and to stop at nothing.

Twenty-four years later, Kristian has achieved everything he’s ever desired. Now an art photographer with a major retrospective in New York City, he sees his world around him begin to crumble as his past catches up to him and he faces his evil fate.

In a thrilling twist on Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, and set in the occult universe of The Morning Star, The Wolves of Eternity, and The Third Realm, Knausgaard masterfully spins a dark cautionary tale about the lengths we will go to achieve success—and how far we are willing to fall.

About the author

Karl Ove Knausgaard’s first novel, Out of the World, was the first ever debut novel to win the Norwegian Critics’ Prize and his second, A Time for Everything, was widely acclaimed. The My Struggle cycle of novels has been heralded as a masterpiece wherever it has appeared.

Martin Aitken's translations of Scandinavian literature number some thirty-five books. His work has appeared on the shortlists of the International DUBLIN Literary Award (2017) and the U.S. National Book Awards (2018), as well as the 2021 International Booker Prize. He received the PEN America Translation Prize in 2019.

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