Yes, it is definitely Knausgaard, not Larsson. The writer even has a certain "Knausgaard-look" (handsome in a scruffy kind of way).

That is correct! The first season was made by a Norwegian production company and the tv-rights were bought by the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK. And then Netflix bought the streaming rights and slapped the "original" tag on it (by then it had already aired in Norway). Netflix got increasingly involved in seasons 2…