Karl Ove Knausgaard on how life is hard but worth living 　

His dark memoirs fused Nordic-noir with unflinching autobiographic detail. The six volumes of Karl Ove Knausgaard’s My Struggle dealt with his alcoholic father and failing marriage, bringing him success and condemnation in equal measure.

But his latest book Spring, part of his Seasons Quartet, is a departure from the introspective – with reviewers even saying he has found his “sweet side”. So what has made this most controversial of modern writers start to mellow?