Träumen

Knausgård spent 14 years in Bergen before he practically fled from the Norwegian coastal city to Stockholm, as if going into exile. These were years in which he tirelessly yet unsuccessfully tried to become a writer, during which his first marriage ultimately failed, where moments of brief happiness intertwined with those of deep self-contempt, and where humiliations and euphoric highs alternated just as quickly as self-destructive alcohol binges and early artistic successes. At the beginning, life in Bergen had seemed so promising. The young Knausgård felt that the world was open to him, and all his dreams seemed to be coming true. He had secured a place at the Academy of Writing and had finally found a girlfriend.