Debut and follow-up Knausgård made his publishing debut in 1998 with the novel
Out of the World, for which he was awarded the
Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature. This was the first time in the award's history that a debut novel had won. His second novel,
A Time for Everything (2004), partly retells certain parts of the Bible as well as the history of
angels on earth. The book won a number of awards and was nominated for the
Nordic Council's Literature Prize. It was also nominated for the
International Dublin Literary Award. It was called a "strange, uneven, and marvellous book" by
The New York Review of Books.
The Min Kamp books in 2012. While Knausgård's two first books were well received, it was the six-volume
Min Kamp (
My Struggle) series of
autobiographical novels that made Knausgård a household name in Norway. Published from 2009 to 2011 and totalling over 3,500 pages, the books were hugely successful and also caused much controversy. The controversy was caused partly because the Norwegian title of the book,
Min Kamp, is the same as the Norwegian title of
Hitler's
Mein Kampf, and partly because some have suggested Knausgård goes too far in exposing the private lives of his friends and family—including his father, ex-wife, uncle, and grandmother. The books have nevertheless received almost universally favourable reviews, at least the first two volumes. In a country of five million people, the
Min Kamp series has sold over 450,000 copies. The
Min Kamp series is translated into numerous languages. The books were published to great critical acclaim in Denmark, Sweden, In a long and largely positive review of the first
Min Kamp books,
James Wood of
The New Yorker wrote that "There is something ceaselessly compelling about Knausgård's book: even when I was bored, I was interested."
Essays and the Seasons Quartet 2013–2019 Knausgård served as a consultant to the new Norwegian translation of the
Bible. In 2013, he published a collection of
essays,
Sjelens Amerika: tekster 1996–2013 (""), and in 2013 he
adapted his novel
Out of the World into a
screenplay. Between 2015 and 2016, Knausgård published his
Seasons Quartet, a series of four books titled
Autumn,
Winter,
Spring, and
Summer, that like the
My Struggle-series are also autobiographical in nature, consisting of diary excerpts, letters, and other personal materials. Knausgård has written works devoted to the
visual arts. He co-authored
Anselm Kiefer: Transition from Cool to Warm, a book in 2018 on the German artist
Anselm Kiefer with James Lawrence. In 2019, Knausgård published a
monograph on the Norwegian artist
Edvard Munch, and his interview about Munch also appeared as a highlight of the
British Museum's 2019 exhibition catalogue,
Edvard Munch: Love and Angst, by curator
Giulia Bartrum. In October 2019 Knausgård became the sixth writer chosen to contribute to the
Future Library project. His essay collection
In the Land of the Cyclops was published in Norwegian in 2018 and in English in January 2021.
Novel series 2020–2025 In September 2020 Knausgård's novel
Morgenstjernen ("The Morning Star"), a story about a number of peoples' everyday life in southern Norway while a mysteriously bright star appears in the sky, was published to critical acclaim in Norway. Danish and Swedish translations were published a few months later to great critical acclaim. It was sold in advance to fifteen countries. In 2021,
Ulvene fra evighetens skog (English translation
The Wolves of Eternity, 2023), a sequel to
Morgenstjernen mainly set in the 1980s that portrays two estranged half-siblings in Norway and the Soviet Union, was published in Norway. The longest novel in the series and dealing with various philosophical questions, it prompted critical comparison to a 19th-century Russian novel. A third book in the series titled
Det tredje riket (English translation
The Third Realm, 2024) was published in 2022, followed by
Nattskolen (English translation
The School of Night, 2026), in 2023 and
Arendal in 2024. The sixth novel
Jeg var lenge død, that outright deals with the
supernatural implied in the previous novels, was published in Norwegian on 31 October 2025. In a radio interview published the same day, Knausgård revealed that he is writing a seventh book, which will be the final book in the series. ==Critical reception==