There are no gas or diesel engines, only steam. Here he is married, and his wife assumes he has amnesia, but he suspects he has landed in a parallel reality. Here Henrik wakes up to a Kristiansand he vaguely recognises, but is still completely different. The third part also contains a story within a story – a long science fiction-like dream sequence, told in the second person. Miriam, however, spots him, runs towards him and embraces him. As the novel ends, Henrik travels to the airport, just to get a glimpse of her. Back in the present day, Henrik finds out that Miriam is coming to Kristiansand with her family. In addition to this, his parents' marriage was falling apart, as his father slipped further into alcoholism and neglect. His time in upper secondary school was troubled, with difficulties fitting in socially and disastrous attempts to woo girls. The environment brings back memories, and he starts reflecting on his earlier days. The third part, which is about the same length as the other two combined, Henrik is in Kristiansand. As this story ends, they move to Southern Norway with their newborn second son, who is Henrik. They eventually move in together and have a child, but struggle with acceptance from Harald's domineering father, and with Harald's own anger issues. Only when she disowns him completely is his interest piqued, and he decides to win her back. The spend a night together, but later Harald shies away. Here she meets the local boy Harald, and decides to seduce him. Ingrid is a young girl from a small village in Western Norway, visiting a friend in Kristiansand. Instead this part focuses on his parents: how they met, how their relationship developed, how they had children and established a home. In the second part, as Henrik is on his way to Kristiansand, he recedes to the background of the narrative. He decides to return to the city where he lived for several years during his early youth: Kristiansand in Southern Norway. He falls in love with his 13-year-old pupil Miriam, and after a sexual experience with the girl, he is forced to flee the village. In the first part, the 26-year-old Henrik Vankel, the story's narrator, is a substitute teacher at an elementary school in Northern Norway. It was a very good time for me.' Synopsis And I think that's the definition of writing. It's like there's something else coming out there. I'm writing things that I never could think of. In his interview for The Paris Review 's My First Time, Knausgard described the book's writing process as not being 'related to me, in any normal sense.

This was the first time in the award's history that a first-time author had won. Knausgård was awarded the Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature for the book. Ute av verden (direct translation: Out of the World) is the 1998 debut novel by Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgård.

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