The Other Name: Septology I - II

The Other Name: Septology I - II

Jon Fosse

Original title: Det andre namnet. Septologien I-II
Publisher: Det Norske Samlaget, 2019
Pages: 514 pages

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The first book of Jon Fosse’s magnum opus

Jon Fosse has completed a 1250 page prose work: Septology. He started writing prose again in the summer of 2015, after a short break, and since then he has been writing constantly. The work as a whole is called Septology and the seven parts are being published in three volumes: The Other Name: Septology I – II, I is Another: Septology III – V and A New Name: Septology VI – VII early September 2021.

The main character and first-person narrator of Septology, Asle, is a painter and widower who lives in the house in Dylgja where he used to live with his wife Ales. He is now alone; almost the only people he still sees are his neighbor, Åsleik—an old-fashioned country fisherman—and his gallerist, Beyer, who lives in the city of Bjørgvin, a couple of hours’ drive to the south.
Another Asle, also a painter, lives in Bjørgvin, and he and the narrator are doppelgangers, in a way, or perhaps two versions of the same person, the same life. The one who married Ales also became religious, and quit drinking, and became a successful painter; the other is on a harder path. It is a central event of Fosse’s fictional universe when they meet. The action of the novel takes place during Advent, shortly before Christmas, with the lives of the two Asles told both in flashback and in the present.
Septology is about the nature of art, and God; about alcoholism and the passage of time. Like so much of Fosse’s work, it treats of love, of death, of the sea.

Foreign rights

Arabic: (Saudi-Arabia) Dar Athar
Danish: Batzer
Georgia: Bakur Sulakauri Publishing
German: Rowohlt
Dutch: Uitgeverij Oevers
Swedish: Bonnier
Englis (UK): Fitzcarraldo Editions
English (US): Transit Books
English (ANZ): Giromondo
Spanish: De Conatus
Hungarian: Kalligram
French: Christian Bourgois
Slovak: Modry Peter
Italian: La Nave di Teseo
Estonian: Eesti Raamat
Romanian: Pandora Publishing
Russian: Eksmo
Greek: Gutenberg
Faroese: Sprotin
Turkish: Monokl Yayinlari
Serbian: Treći Trg
Polish: ArtRage
Portuguese: Cavalo de Ferro
Croatian: Naklada Ljeva
Persian: Borj Books (A division of Houpaa Publication, Iran)

Awards

The Other Name: Septology I – II was longlisted for The Booker International 2020. Fosse has received numerous prize both in Norway and internationally,see some of them listed on the Fosse – biography. Fosse is mentioned increasingly often as a likely contender for The Nobel Prize.

Fosse has written a strange mystical moebius strip of a novel, in which an artist struggles with faith and loneliness, and watches himself, or versions of himself, fall away into the lower depths. The social world seems distant and foggy in this profound, existential narrative, which is only the first part of what promises to be a major work of Scandinavian fiction.

Hari Kunzru, author of White Tears

Only Jon Fosse can write like this! […] New readers who want to experience true art have reason to rejoice over The Other Name: Septology I-II

Sindre Hovdenakk, VG

Jon Fosse’s prose is so musical that it can give meaning to the mere keeping of time. […] A magnificent reading experience. […] This book is on fire.

Vidar Kvalshaug, BOK365

Jon Fosse writes brilliantly about art creating light out of darkness. […] The book is easy to read and understand, and it’s beautiful to breathe in Fosse’s rhythm. […] Sexy prose. […] An inspired and inspiring artist-novel.

Gerd Elin Stava Sandve, Dagsavisen

Jon Fosse

Portrait jon fosse septology
Photo: Tom A. Kolstad

Jon Fosse is widely considered one of the world’s most important living writers. Born in 1959 in Strandebarm, a small village in the western part of Norway, he lives today in the Grotten, an honorary residence, as well as in Hainburg, Austria, and Frekhaug, Norway.

Fosse has received numerous prizes, both in Norway and internationally, and he is mentioned increasingly often as a likely contender for the Nobel Prize. He has currently finished a major seven-volume work of what he calls “slow prose”. Septology consists of three volumes: The Other Name: Septology I – II was published in 2019 to international praise and longlisted for the Booker International Prize. I Is Another: Septology III – V was published autumn 2020 and A New Name: Septology VI – VII in September 2021.

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Someone Is Going to Come

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Plays 1 - 5

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Morning and Evening

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2000
Collected Essays

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2011
I Am the Wind

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2008
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2016
Nightsongs

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1998
Boathouse

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1989
Dream of Autumn

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1999
Plays 3

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2005
Plays 2

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2001
Little Sister

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2000
Living Rock

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2015
Stone to Stone

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2013
The Fiddler Girl

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2009
The Dog Manuscripts

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2018, (1995, 1996, 1997)
Collected Poems

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2001
Kant

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1990
The Name

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1995
Shorter Prose

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2011
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2009
Plays 1

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1999
Trilogy

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2014
Melancholy I - II

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1995, 1996
A Shining

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2023