Goodreads Monday is a weekly meme that was started by @Lauren’s Page Turners but is now currently being hosted by Emily @ Budget Tales Book Blog. This meme is quite easy to follow – just randomly pick a book from your to-be-read list and give the reasons why you want to read it. It is that simple.

This week’s book:

The Wolves of Eternity by Karl Ove Knausgård

Blurb from Goodreads

From the internationally bestselling author Karl Ove Knausgaard, a sprawling and deeply human novel that questions the responsibilities we have toward one another and ourselves—and the limits of what we can understand about life itself

In 1986, twenty-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 and 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, and 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 eightieth birthday. As a student, Alevtina was bright, curious and ambitious, asking the big questions about life and 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, and 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 and left two sons, Joar and Syvert.

Years later, when Syvert and 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 and the mysteries that exist beyond our own worldview. Set against the political and cultural backdrop of both the 1980s and the present day, The Wolves of Eternity is an expansive and affecting book about relations—to one another, to nature, to the dead.

Why I Want To Read It

Happy Monday everyone! Thankfully, today is a holiday in the Philippines, in commemoration of Andres Bonifacio’s birthday. A national hero, Andres Bonifacio led the KKK during the uprisings against Spanish colonizers. His actual birthday is November 30 which falls on a Thursday this year. Due to the holiday economics, the holiday was moved to Monday, thus, providing everyone a long weekend. I guess my wish for a longer weekend came true even though it was temporary. HAHA! For those who had to report to work today, I hope you had a great start to the workweek. As we are really approaching the final stretch of the year. I hope that the remaining days of 2023 will be filled with nothing but good news and blessings. I hope you will be repaid for the hard work you poured in this year.

Woah, I can’t believe that we are just a couple of days away from welcoming the last month of the year. 2024 is just a couple of weeks away! Reading-wise, this year has been record-breaking. Not only have I completed over 100 books but I reset my personal record; I am currently reading my 118th book this year while I ended 2022 with 103 books. I have always dreamed of reading at least 100 books in a year. After years of coming close, I finally did it, not only once but twice. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting to repeat the feat I achieved last year. The year is far from over so I have more opportunities to extend my personal record. Moreover, I still have about six books from my outstanding reading challenges I am looking forward to finishing before the year ends.

Anyway, to open another blogging week is a Goodreads Monday update, my last for November. The book that I am featuring this week, however, is not part of any of my ongoing reading challenges: Karl Ove Knausgård’s The Wolves of Eternity. I have never read any of the Norwegian writer’s works before although I keep on encountering his popular series My Struggle. Apparently, it is a work of autofiction and was instrumental in establishing Knausgård’s reputation. This naturally piqued my interest in Knausgård’s oeuvre. Last year, I was able to obtain all four books in his Seasons Quartet but I held back reading them because I learned they were collections of diary excerpts, letters, and other personal materials. This does not mean that I will not read the books, maybe not for now.

Meanwhile, I learned that Knausgård was releasing a new work, The Wolves of Eternity. The book was originally published in 2021 as Ulvene fra evighetens skog and is a sequel to Morgenstjernen (The Morning Star, 2020). I guess I must resign myself to Knausgård and his series. Not that I mind. When I learned about his latest release, I was naturally curious and wanted to obtain a copy of the book. The title was quite interesting as well. I was able to obtain a copy of the book. thankfully. I was planning to include it in my foray into European literature this year but seeing that it is rather thick and I don’t have the luxury of time, I had to shelf it for the meantime. However, I am planning to delve into it as soon as I can, maybe later this year or early next year.

How about you fellow reader? How was your Monday? What books have you added to your reading list? Do drop it in the comment box. For now, happy Monday and, as always, happy reading!