The Wolves of Eternity: A Novel
Karl Ove KnausgaardIn 1986, 20-year-old Syvert Løyning returns from the military to his mother’s home in southern Norway. One evening, his dead father comes to him in a dream. Realizing that he doesn’t really know who his father was, Syvert begins to investigate his life & finds clues pointing to the Soviet Union. What he learns changes his past and undermines the entire notion of who he is. But when his mother becomes ill, & he must care for his little brother, Joar, on his own, he no longer has time or space for lofty speculations.
In present-day Russia, Alevtina Kotov, a biologist working at Moscow University, is traveling with her young son to the home of her stepfather, to celebrate his 80th birthday. As a student, Alevtina was bright, curious & ambitious, asking the big questions about life & human consciousness. But as she approaches middle-age, most of that drive has gone, and she finds herself in a place she doesn’t want to be, without really understanding how she got there. Her stepfather, a musician, raised her as his own daughter, & she was never interested in learning about her biological father; when she finally starts looking into him, she learns that he died many years ago & left two sons, Joar & Syvert.
Years later, when Syvert & Alevtina meet in Moscow, two very different approaches to life emerge. And as a bright star appears in the sky, it illuminates the wonder of human existence & the mysteries that exist beyond our own worldview. Set against the political & cultural backdrop of both the 1980s & the present day, The Wolves of Eternity is an expansive & affecting book about relations—to one another, to nature, to the dead.