Karl Ove Knausgaard was born in Norway in 1968. His debut novel Out of This World won the Norwegian Critics Prize in 2004 and his novel A Time for Everything was a finalist for the Nordic Council Prize. For My Struggle: Book One , Knausgaard received the Brage Award in 2009, the 2010 Book of the Year Prize in Morgenbladet, and the P2 Listeners' Prize. My Struggle: Book One was a New Yorker Book of the Year and Book Two was listed among the Wall Street Journal's 2013 Books of the Year. My Struggle is a New York Times Best Seller and has been translated into more than fifteen languages. Knausgaard writes regularly for The New York Times Magazine . About the translator: Martin Aitken is the translator of numerous novels from Danish and Norwegian, including works by Karl Ove Knausgaard, Hanne Ørstavik, Peter Høeg, Kim Leine, and Josefine Klougart. His translations of short stories and poetry have appeared in many literary journals and magazines.

In 2012, he was awarded the American-Scandinavian Foundation's Nadia Christensen Translation Prize. His translation of Hanne Ørstavik's Love won the 2019 PEN Translation Award and was a National Book Award Finalist for 2018.