I Is Another: Septology III - V

New York Times Editors’ Choice

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

In this 2nd installment of Jon Fosse’s Septology, “a major work of Scandinavian fiction” (Hari Kunzru),
the two Asles meet for the first time in their youth. They look strangely alike, dress identically, & both want to be painters. At art school in Bjørgvin, Asle meets & falls in love with his future wife, Ales. Written in melodious & hypnotic “slow prose,” I is Another: Septology III-V is an exquisite metaphysical novel about love, art, God, friendship, & the passage of time.

Jon Fosse was born in 1959 on the west coast of Norway & is the recipient of countless prestigious prizes, both in his native Norway & abroad. Since his 1983 fiction debut, Raudt, svart [Red, Black], Fosse has written prose, poetry, essays, short stories, children’s books, & over 40 plays, with more than a thousand productions performed & translations into 50 languages. The Other Name is the first volume in Septology, his latest prose work, to be published in 3 volumes by Fitzcarraldo Editions.

Damion Searls is a translator from German, Norwegian, French, & Dutch & a writer in English. He has translated four books & a libretto by Jon Fosse – Melancholy (co-translated with Grethe Kvernes)...