Spring

By: Karl Ove Knausgaard, Ingvild Burkey - translator

Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini

Spring is a deeply moving novel about family, our everyday lives, our joys and our struggles.

"Today is Wednesday the 13th of April 2016, it is 12 minutes to 11, and I have just finished writing this book for you. What happened that summer nearly three years ago, and its repercussions, are long since over. Sometimes it hurts to live, but there is always something to live for."

Spring follows a father and his newborn daughter through one day in April, from sunrise to sunset. A day filled with everyday routine, the beginnings of life and its light, but also its deep struggles and its darkness.

©2016 Karl Ove Knausgaard and Forlaget Oktober; 2018 Ingvild Burkey (translation) (P)2018 Recorded Books

His attention to detail

All his books are mesmerizing with an attention to detail and minutiae that is compelling

the beauty of this world means nothing...

"You see, the beauty of this world means nothing if you stand alone in it."
- Karl Ove Knausgaard, Spring

The first two books in Knausgaard's Årstidsencyklopedien (Seasonal Encyclopedia) Series were Autumn and Winter. The structure of these books was relatively (and seductively) simple. Knausgård wrote every day for three months on a variety of subjects that relate to the season and month he is writing about. He is addressing these books to his unborn/recently born daughter. I got it. I liked it. It now was familiar.

So, when I picked up this book and figured out rather quickly that the structure had dramatically changed, I was a bit upset. I had to reorder things. I questioned. I protested. I kept reading. It was the shortest of the series so far, so it didn't take too much reading to understand (or begin to understand) why. Once I did, the change was, from a literary perspective, amazing. It perfectly reflected life. We start off thinking we've got things organized. We have a plan and a method. It works. And suddenly, life happens. By abandoning the simple structure Knausgaard, for me, took a series that would be a minor work (think a Mozart Concerto, not Symphony), and turned it into something BIG. He didn't set out to do this, but he allowed (like he always does) the momentum of LIFE, both the banal and the heavenly, both the dark and the light, to dictate his art. And it worked by god.

The best writer in the world

Karl Ove Knausgaard is a daring and bold writer. We know this. He writes beautifully and tragically. He writes about what we all feel and goes places where we all go but can’t express or don’t want to. He should win a Nobel soon for his deep and empathetic look at the condition. Spring is one of his finest.

I was inclined to dislike this…

…but I found it so compelling. There are some swings and misses, but it is a beautiful and inspiring work. I am better for having heard it.

Narrator is superb.