An obscure Brooklyn publisher is momentarily at the center of a global literary phenomenon.

Archipelago Books publishes literary fiction in translation, which is the essence of a niche market. A typical offering is "A Treatise on Shelling Beans," a celebrated Polish epic by Wieslaw Mysliwski. In fact, translated literary fiction is such an unprofitable corner of the publishing world that Archipelago Books operates as a not-for-profit and solicits tax-deductible donations from readers on its web site.

But forget all that for now. The company controls the U.S. hardcover rights to Karl Ove Knausgaard's "My Struggle." The book is an international publishing phenomenon and is being lavishly praised by critics. Since its publication in Norway in 2009, it has sold nearly half a million copies there. In 2010, Jill Schoolman, Archipelago's publisher and founder, secured the rights to publish the 3,600-page autobiographical work in the U.S. The epic is being published in six volumes and volume three was recently released to the wildest reviews yet. Ms. Schoolman, 46, ("the same age as Karl Ove!" she says) recently accompanied Mr. Knausgaard on the New York leg of his book tour, where he was mobbed (in a literary fiction crowd sort of way) by adoring fans. Archipelago has already sold about 20,000 copies of the first three volumes. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux has the U.S. trade paperback rights to the books. The two companies split the proceeds from e-book sales.) Below is a lightly edited interview with Ms. Schoolman.

How did you first get associated with "My Struggle"? Tell me the story of your struggle to publish My Struggle."

I first heard of Knausgaard from an editor at his Norwegian publishing house. She told me about another work of Knausgaard's: A Time for Everything, a remarkable novel about angels. This book revealed his gifts as a storyteller and thinker, as well as his profound powers of empathy and seeing. I knew after reading this novel that it would be a great honor and joy to publish as much of Knausgaard's work as we could.