(em português, com links → sol2070.in/2024/11/livro-the-wolves-of-eternity-karl-knausgard/)

"The Wolves of Eternity" (2024, 800 pgs.), by Karl Ove Knausgård, is the second book in "The Morning Star" series, about routines transformed by the appearance of a big new star in the sky.

Volume one covers the first and second days from the point of view of nine people in present-day Norway. "Wolves", on the other hand, is a kind of interlude focusing more on two key people. The young Norwegian Syvert returns from military service at the time of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and discovers his deceased father's secret past, which connects him to the Soviet Union. In contemporary Russia, Alevtina is confronted with personal crises and her obsession with the essence of biological life.

The narrative at the end integrates deeply with the series and its huge themes of death, life, human crisis and nature. But this book has few of the fantastic elements of the first, which in no way detracts from it, concentrating on the interconnected story of these two characters. The context of the environmental emergency and the investigation into the biosphere are also more present.

Karl's style won me over. He writes without pretension in the first person, things like: “I did this, then that. The day was like this; the other man, like that.” In addition to the cosmic enigma of the setting, people are left pondering the big questions, without sounding too philosophical, in a perfect dosage for stories that are both profound and captivating.

The central theme of "Wolves" is a question that stems from the anxiety about death. The book's title is the same as a character's essay, linked to the origins of Russian cosmism and the fabulous poet Rainer Maria Rilke, who investigates the hypothesis of the “beginning of eternity”.

I'm already reading the third, "The Third Realm", and I'm equally hooked. For the time being, the series has gone so far, although sequels are expected. However, it's not the kind of series whose plot continues in subsequent books. Each one can be read on its own, although there are many connections between them.