Shorter Prose

Jon Fosse

Original title: Kortare Prosa
Publisher: Samlaget, 2011
Genre: Short prose

Throughout his prolific career Fosse has written three books of short prose: Two Stories (1993), Prose from a Childhood (1994), and Older Shorter Prose (1998), all being a great introduction to Fosse’s authorship. Fosse is one of Norway’s most celebrated authors and playwright, famed for the minimalist and unsettling quality of writing.

The latest compilation of his essays was published by Fitzcarraldo Editions, under the title Scenes from a childhood, and includes How It Started, Dreamt in Stone, And Then My Dog Will Come Back To Me, and Little Sister. Taken from various sources, these texts demonstrate that the short story is one of the recurrent modes of Fosse’s imagination, and occasions some of his greatest works.

Scenes from a Childhood carries autobiographical hints in the narrative, covering a child’s story from infancy to awkward adolescence. Fosse is able to unearth the moments of childhood that linger longest in the imagination. In And Then My Dog Will Come Back To Me, a haunting and dream-like novella, a dispute between neighbours escalates to an inexorable climax.

Jon Fosse is a major European writer.

Karl Ove Knausgaard, author of “My Struggle”

Jon Fosse

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.