Arendal by Karl Ove Knausgård (2024)

The story begins with the narrator, a man named Syvert, driving home from Kongsberg where he has been on business. On the way, his car suddenly breaks down outside of Arendal in the biting winter cold. The engine loses power, traffic piles up behind him, and he manages only to pull over before the car dies completely. With temperatures around minus twenty degrees, he sets out the warning triangle and tries to diagnose the fault under the hood, suspecting ignition problems. Stranded on the roadside, he endures the cold, waves away some drivers who slow down, and finally decides he must find a phone to call for help.

Walking down toward a cluster of houses, he first tries one with skis propped outside but no one answers. At the next house a man in his forties with a short moustache and glasses lets him in to use the phone. Syvert calls the roadside assistance service, Falken, and gives directions to where his orange Ascona is parked. He then calls his wife Evelyn to explain the situation. Evelyn is disappointed since she and their two sons, Syvert and Joar, were expecting him home that evening, but he says the car must go to a workshop and he will probably stay in a hotel overnight. Their conversation is practical but tense, Evelyn frustrated and he weary, before they agree he will call later to say goodnight to the boys.

Back in the car, Syvert waits, drinking from a hip flask and smoking. His thoughts drift inevitably to Asja, a woman with whom he had an affair, and whose presence lingers in him like a horizon in his inner landscape. Her memory brings a mixture of warmth and grief. He reflects on the solitude, the icy stillness, and the uncomfortable sense of being exposed whenever trucks or cars pass. At last, a tow truck arrives, driven by a lively, tobacco-chewing man named Rolf. Rolf inspects the engine, suspects a blown head gasket, and insists it must go to a workshop. With brisk familiarity he chats with Syvert, teasing him for looking like a schoolteacher, until Syvert jokingly says he works for Kripos before admitting he is an engineer. They set off toward Hove, where Rolf recommends a mechanic.