Karl O. Knausgaard was born in Norway in 1968 and is the author of Out of This World (Ute av verden) and A Time for Everything, which was nominated for the Nordic Council Prize. The first volume of his Min Kamp (My Struggle) was the winner of Norway's 2009 Brage Prize.In 2008 at the Guardian, he named his top ten angel books. One title on the list:
Seraphita by Honoré de BalzacRead about another entry on the list.
One of his more obscure novels, this is set in Norway, probably the most remote place this Parisian man of letters could imagine. Into a romantically frozen world of mountains and glaciers,a strange and ambiguous creature lives. For some he is a young man, for some a young woman, for some a raving Swedenborgian. It all ends in a magnificent revelation: the heaven above the fjord opens up, divine creatures appear, and Seraphita leaved this world behind. Balzac himself considered this novel among his best. He was wrong, but it's easy to understand why he thought so. For a novelist the temptation to explain everything is always a powerful urge. Here Balzac did exactly that, and the result is not good - but tremendously interesting.
Also see: Ten of the best angels in literature.
--Marshal Zeringue
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