A New Name: Septology VI-VII - by Jon Fosse (Paperback)

About the Book

"Asle is an aging painter and widower who lives alone on the west coast of Norway. His only friends are his neighbor, Asleik, a traditional fisherman-farmer, and Beyer, a gallerist who lives in the city. There, in Bj²rgvin, lives another Asle, also a painter but lonely and consumed by alcohol. Asle and Asle are doppelgèangers two versions of the same person, two versions of the same life"--

Book Synopsis

WINNER OF THE 2023 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE
New York Times Editors' Choice
Longlisted for the 2020 International Booker Prize
2022 International Booker Prize, Finalist
2022 National Book Award, Finalist
2022 National Book Critics Circle Award, Finalist
New York Times Editors' Choice
Septology named one of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century by The New York Times

"Fosse's fusing of the commonplace and the existential, together with his dramatic forays into the past, make for a relentlessly consuming work: already Septology feels momentous."-The Guardian

"Fosse's portrait of intersecting lives is that rare metaphysical novel that readers will find compulsively readable."--Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

The Other Name follows the lives of two men living close to each other on the west coast of Norway. The year is coming to a close and Asle, an aging painter and widower, is reminiscing about his life. He lives alone, his only friends being his neighbor, ÅAring;sleik, a bachelor and traditional Norwegian fisherman-farmer, and Beyer, a gallerist who lives in Bjøoslash;rgvin, a couple hours' drive south of Dylgja, where he lives. There, in Bjørgvin, lives another Asle, also a painter. He and the narrator are doppelgangers--two versions of the same person, two versions of the same life.

Written in hypnotic prose that shifts between the first and third person, The Other Name calls into question concrete notions around subjectivity and the self. What makes us who we are? And why do we lead one life and not another? Through flashbacks, Fosse deftly explores the convergences and divergences in the lives of both Asles, slowly building towards a decisive encounter between them both. A writer at the zenith of his career, with The Other Name, the first two volumes in his Septology, Fosse presents us with an indelible and poignant exploration of the human condition that will endure as his masterpiece.

"With Septology, Fosse has found a new approach to writing fiction, different from what he has written before and--it is strange to say, as the novel enters its fifth century--different from what has been written before. Septology feels new."--WYATT MASON, HARPERS

Asle is an aging painter and widower who lives alone on the west coast of Norway. His only friends are his neighbor, Åsleik, a traditional fisherman-farmer, and Beyer, a gallerist who lives in the city. There, in Bjørgvin, lives another Asle, also a painter but lonely and consumed by alcohol. Asle and Asle are doppelgängers--two versions of the same person, two versions of the same life. Written in melodious and hypnotic "slow prose," A New Name is the final installment of Jon Fosse's Septology, "a major work of Scandinavian fiction" (Hari Kunzru) and an exquisite metaphysical novel about love, art, God, friendship, and the passage of time.

Review Quotes

"An extraordinary seven-novel sequence about an old man's recursive reckoning with the braided realities of God, art, identity, family life and human life itself... The books feel like the culminating project of an already major career."-Randy Boyagoda, The New York Times

"With Septology, Fosse has found a new approach to writing fiction, different from what he has written before and--it is strange to say, as the novel enters its fifth century--different from what has been written before. Septology feels new."--Wyatt Mason, Harper's

"I hesitate to compare the experience of reading these works to the act of meditation. But that is the closest I can come to describing how something in the critical self is shed in the process of reading Fosse, only to be replaced by something more primal. A mood. An atmosphere. The sound of words moving on a page." --Ruth Margalit, The New York Review of Books

"In The Other Name's rhythmic accumulation of words, [there is] something incantatory and self-annihilating--something that feels almost holy."--Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal

"The Other Name trembles with the beauty, doubt, and gnostic weariness of great religious fiction. In Fosse's hands, God is a difficult, pungent, overwhelmingly aesthetic force, 'the invisible inside the visible.'"--Dustin Illingworth, The Nation

"This Norwegian masterpiece, by the winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature, is the kind of soul-cleansing work that seems to silence the cacophony of the modern world--a pair of noise-cancelling headphones in book form."--The New York Times

"The first two instalments of Fosse's wondrous septology sustain a riveting stream of consciousness in a single rhythmic sentence... Fosse's portrait of intersecting lives is that rare metaphysical novel that readers will find compulsively readable."--Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

"Fosse is often mentioned as a leading contender for the Nobel Prize in literature. The present book has a fittingly Joycean sweep . . . that establishes him as a contender."--Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

"Fosse's fusing of the commonplace and the existential, together with his dramatic forays into the past, make for a relentlessly consuming work: already Septology feels momentous."--The Guardian

About the Author

Jon Fosse is one of Norway's most celebrated authors and playwrights, and was awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature. He was born in 1959 on the west coast of Norway and is the recipient of countless prestigious prizes, both in his native Norway and abroad. Since his 1983 fiction debut, Raudt, svart [Red, Black], Fosse has written prose, poetry, essays, short stories, children's books, and over forty plays, with more than a thousand productions performed and translations into fifty languages.