The Other Name: Septology I - II

Jon Fosse The Nobel Prize

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

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
Brazilian-Portuguese: Editora Fósforo
Chinese (simplified): Yilin Press
Croatian: Naklada Ljeva
Danish: Batzer & Co
Dutch: Uitgeverij Oevers
English (UK): Fitzcarraldo Editions
English (US): Transit Books
English (ANZ): Giramondo
Estonian: Eesti Raamat
Faroese: Sprotin
Finnish:WSOY
French: Christian Bourgois
Georgian: Bakur Sulakauri Publishing
German: Rowohlt
Greek: Gutenberg
Hungarian: Kalligram
Italian: La Nave di Teseo
Persian: Borj Books (A division of Houpaa Publication, Iran)
Polish: ArtRage
Portuguese: Cavalo de Ferro
Romanian: Pandora Publishing
Russian: Eksmo
Serbian: Treći Trg
Spanish: De Conatus
Swedish: Bonniers
Turkish: Monokl Yayinlari

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

Photo: Agnete Brun

Jon Fosse awarded The Nobel Prize in Literature 2023
Jon Fosse, born in 1959, is widely considered one of the most important writers of our time. For almost forty years he has written novels, plays, poems, stories, essays, and children’s books. His award-winning work has been translated into more than fifty languages, and his plays have been staged over a thousand times all over the world.

Jon Fosse grew up in Strandebarm, a small village in the western part of Norway, he lives today in the Grotten, an honorary residence in Oslo, as well as in Hainburg, Austria, and Frekhaug, Norway.

Fosse’s longest work of prose to date is Septology (2019–21), which he started during a break from playwrighting and after converting to Catholicism in 2013. Fosse has called his method of writing Septology ”slow prose”: a style of shifting levels, scenes, and reflections, the exact opposite of fast-paced drama. Its seven parts have been published in three volumes: The Other Name, I Is Another, and A New Name. It is a suggestive, magnificent narrative about the nature of art and God, about alcoholism, friendship, love, and the passage of time. Septology is translated into over 20 languages and is critically acclaimed worldwide.

For Septology, Jon Fosse has received numerous awards, including the Brage Prize and the Critics’ Prize. He has also been shortlisted for the international Booker Prize and the American National Book Award.

Furthermore, the hiatus in playwriting is over; Fosse is once again writing for the theater. Since 2020, three new plays have premiered. Jon Fosse’s most recent prose work, the novel Kvitleik (A Shining) was released in spring 2023 — a luminous narrative exploring the boundary between life and death.

In 2023, Fosse is also celebrating a literary milestone, marking 40 years since his debut with the novel Raudt, svart (Red, black).

Fosse is the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2023 and has received numerous prizes, both in Norway and internationally through the years.