The following podcast contains explicit language.

Welcome to the Slate Audio Book Club's discussion of My Struggle, Book 1, by Carl Ova Canowsgard.

I'm Dan Coist. I'm the editor of the Slate Book Review. I'm here in Slate's DC Recording Studio.

Joining me from New York is Slate Senior Editor David Hagelin. Hey, David.

Hi, Dan.

And also in New York is a brand new

addition to our audio book club rotation, New York Times book review editor, Parle Segal. Hey, Parle.

Hi, Dan. We're so happy to have you here. Thanks for joining us. So, as always is the case

with the audiobook club, we will be spoiling the various events that happen in My Struggle.

So if you are a person who cares about stuff like that, you should listen after you read.

If you're not a person who cares about that, you should listen right now.

So Carl Ova Canowskard's six-part autobiographical novel, My Struggle, has sold over half a million copies in his native Norway.

That's one copy for every nine adults in the country.

Here in the U.S., his appearances last month in New York packed bookstores with rabid readers. He's attracted fans as starry as Zadie Smith, Jonathan Leitham, and Jeffrey Eugenides,

who said, he broke the sound barrier of the autobiographical novel. So today we're going to talk

in the audiobook club, among other subjects, about

Canaussgard's distinctive style in these books, about the relationship between

Canaussgard and his family as it's portrayed, especially in book one, about the dudeness

of Canausgard and his books, and about whether my struggle really does break new ground in

the autobiographical mode.

But let's start out Paril and, by talking about the actual experience of reading the book,

which is all wrapped up in the book's style.

...