Lit in Translation

The Other Name: Septology I–II

Det andre namnet

Jon Fosse (born 1959)

Translated by Damion Searls

English editions

In English

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The painter Asle lives alone at Dylgja, north of Bjørgvin, with hardly any company but his neighbour Åsleik, a bachelor fisherman and farmer. In Bjørgvin lives another painter called Asle, his friend and in some way his double, a second version of the same life. While preparing a Christmas exhibition, the narrator finds the other Asle lying in the snow, collapsed from drink. With his friend in hospital, he looks after his dog and drives back and forth on snowy roads. It is Advent, and for the first time he plans to accept Åsleik's yearly invitation to spend Christmas with his sister. Memories of childhood, of a sister, the fjord and a neighbour's boy lost at sea, run through the present.

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About the book

Form
Novel
Length
513 pages in the original
Set in
Norway
Series
Septologien, book 1 · book 3: Eit nytt namn
First published
2019 by Det Norske Samlaget
Author's age
60 when first published
ISBN

9788252196177 (original)

9781910695913 (Fitzcarraldo Editions, United Kingdom)

9781945492402 (Transit Books, United States)

9781945492679 (Transit Books, United States)

9781945492754 (Transit Books, United States)

More
Wikidata