The wonder that grips a person when facing the miracle of another’s craft is a powerful, almost magnetic force. The astonishment, the fascination, of watching someone perform an act that seems beyond reach, and yet unfolds before us with a grace that makes it look effortless. The leaps of a pole vaulter, the precision of a concert pianist, the lightness of Giselle on stage—these moments spark a deep admiration that can push a reader to chase something new, to ask how such mastery is achieved. What is technique, what is talent? This is genius.
The answer often lands in the word dedication, a term that also encompasses effort, perseverance, and steady work. This question guided a recent interview with Nobel Prize winner Jon Fosse during Literature 2023 in March, conducted through the support of Conatus. The writer faced a challenge: Fosse was not widely known in Spain, yet the interview and a subsequent review could reach only a small audience. Still, the respect for his work was unmistakable. A bold, surprising voice that never shies from facing the core of things, delivering insights with a clarity that feels almost incandescent.
The focus of the conversation was not to spell out a direct question, but to convey what his books — especially Septology — meant to the interviewer. Reading Septology invites a trance-like state, a sense of continuity across seven books that seems to begin with a single sentence stretched across volumes. The prose carries a strange energy, rising and falling, at once hurried and deliberate, until it achieves a unity that resonates with the central figure. The repeated prayer at the end of each book, spoken in Latin and in the author’s own language, frames this unusual journey.
Septology Translation: Cristina Gómez Baggethun De Conatus 792 pages 29,90 Euro Jon Fosse
The reviewer wrote about themes like love, hope, the sacred, and trust in eternity, and about a fearless approach to faith and religion. The tension between reality and dream, and the pain of missing someone who is no longer present, were explored in a way that suggests that loss can be felt without dwelling on regret. The reference to Caspar David Friedrich, who urged painters to show not only the world before them but also what they carry inside, helped shape the sense of the painter Asle throughout the work.
Generosity
Fosse answered with a rare openness. His generosity extends to his writing, his editors, and his readers. He sent the interview request on March 6, and the reply arrived the next morning. He described writing as a form of listening rather than planning, a practice where words find their own path. Sometimes the author feels that what he describes already exists somewhere and must be written before it vanishes. Other times the text must be pursued wherever it leads. Writing becomes a journey into the unknown, with meaning emerging from what is left unsaid as much as from what is spoken.
The critic found in Fosse a persistent attempt to rise above the limits of time and to blur the lines between past and future. Characters and events become vessels for broader questions, and a stylistic choice replaces traditional narration. Dialogue, punctuation, and capitalization shift as if the language itself is being reimagined, inviting readers to glimpse a reality that transcends the usual storylines.
When asked whether the form mattered more than the content, the author answered plainly that it does. He described his work as something that lives through the language itself, beyond what is said,
Trilogy Translation: Cristina Gómez Baggethun De Conatus 168 pages 16,90 Euro Jon Fosse
What stands out to the reader is not a sequence of events but the traces those events leave on the characters. Moments pass, scenes shift, people depart, yet the aim is to lead readers toward a way of expressing emotion through action, dialogue, and small, telling details. The essence, the truth that remains, emerges through a craft that makes the invisible feel present. The question remains: how is it done?
literary ostinato
As a painterly analogy, the author’s characters — not just Asle, but also the other Asle and his wife Ales — are imagined as painters who work with broad strokes, grounding memory in the background so the inner world can be seen. The outer world fades in importance as memory piles up, creating a sense of eternal separation that defines the narrative. The tension between inside and outside, private and public, becomes a solid, undeniable force.
In Fosse’s novels the idea of objectivity fades, and the characters’ inner awareness of events takes center stage, elevating the moments toward a sense of the eternal. This is achieved through a repeating formal motif, a literary ostinato, that gathers momentum as the voice grows more insistent and personal. It is a style unique to his work and deeply recognizable.
Initial encounters with Septology occurred during quarantine, when the sense of time and place seemed to blur. The first part, The Other Name, appeared in 2019 during a Frankfurt Book Fair year when Norway was the guest country. The second part followed in 2020 as deliveries III-V, under the title Yo es otro, and in 2022 De conatus offered another extraordinary translation. The final part, A New Name, arrived in 2021 and reached Spain in January 2023.
The sense of waiting between installments was addressed through readings of the trilogy, including earlier works Vigilia, Olav’s Dreams, and Desaliento y Melancolía, and the recent edition Morning and Afternoon, all of which grapple with mortality, illumination, and transcendence.
Every reader will decide how to bring Fosse’s books into their own mental space and how to savor the exhilaration of reading a work that feels inexhaustible. The questions of holiness, spiritual experience, and enduring love invite a reading that sees the narrative as a living entity that expands and contracts with each moment.
Beatriz and the reviewer walked the streets of Bergen when Jon Fosse emerged from the subway in a black corduroy jacket and ponytail, moving ahead much like Asle. They were heading to the International Fosse Seminar, filled with editors, critics, and translators who gathered to discuss his work. That night, a simple greeting and shared curiosity about septology bridged the moment. Conversation later turned to philosophy, and the group imagined a potential shift in literary focus toward the artistic experience itself. In Septology, art becomes the realm beyond human suffering. Asle endures constraints and must keep painting. The realization came near Hardanger Fjord, under a horizon where sun met sea and the moment felt almost mystical. The group traced images — House, Mountain, Waterfall, Boat, Cabin — as if each word could unlock a deeper truth. The discussion lingered on the narrator and the sense of psychological turning points in the narrative. The editors and translators felt the weight of how language shapes perception rather than simply recording events. They spoke of careful choices, such as whether to translate certain terms, always mindful of what meaning might be lost. The sentiment was clear: this prize praises literature that simply wants to be literature, and the work stands as a beacon for what literature can be when it acts with integrity and vision.