"Book Four finds an eighteen-year-old Karl Ove in a tiny fishing village in Northern Norway, where he has been hired as a schoolteacher and is living on his own for the first time. When the ferocious winter takes hold, Karl Ove--in the company of the Håfjord locals, a warm and earthy group who have spent their lives working, drinking, joking together in close quarters--confronts private demons, reels from humiliations, and is elated by small victories....

"In book six, Knausgaard grapples directly with the consequences of his transgressive blurring of public and private. His vulnerabilities and ambitions are exposed. Book Six depicts life in all its complexities, from the painful fallout surrounding the publication of the earlier volumes, to the emotional balm that his close friends provide, to the vivid texture of his days as he faces a marital crisis with his children around him. The book is an exploration...