Reading guide: The Other Name: Septology I-II by Jon Fosse, translated by Damion Searls
In the first volume of a trilogy of novels, Jon Fosse explores profound questions: what makes us who we are? And why do we lead one life instead of another?
Jon Fosse
Jon Fosse has been nominated for the International Booker Prize twice, in 2020 and 2022. He was born in 1959 on the west coast of Norway and is the recipient of countless prestigious prizes, both in his native country and abroad
Since his 1983 fiction debut – 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. The Other Name is the first volume in Septology, a trilogy. In 2023, Fosse won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Video highlights
Images from the ceremony
Shortlisted authors Bora Chung, Mieko Kawakami, Jon Fosse, Geetanjali Shree and Claudia Piñeiro at the 2022 International Booker Prize Ceremony
© David Parry/PA
Shortlisted translators David Boyd, Sam Bett, Frances Riddle, Daisy Rockwell, Anton Hur and Damion Searls at the 2022 International Booker Prize ceremony, London
© David Parry/PA
Booker judges Viv Groskop, Petina Gappah, Frank Wynne, Jeremy Tiang and Merve Emre at the 2022 International Booker Prize ceremony
© David Parry/PA
The 2022 International Booker Prize Ceremony.
© David Parry/PAAll nominated books
Jon Fosse delivers both a transcendent exploration of the human condition and a radically ‘other’ reading experience - incantatory, hypnotic, and utterly unique. Translated by Damion Searls.
In the first volume of a trilogy of novels, Jon Fosse presents us with an indelible and poignant exploration of the human condition. Translated by Damion Searls.
