Books in the Septology series

I IS ANOTHER: SEPTOLOGY III-V, the second instalment in a major new work by Jon Fosse, one of Europe's most celebrated writers, follows the lives of Asle and Asle - two versions of the same person, two versions of the same life, both grappling with existential questions about life, death, love, light and shadow, faith and hopelessness.

What makes us who we are? And why do we lead one life and not another? The year is coming to a close and Asle, an ageing painter and widower who lives alone on the southwest coast of Norway, is reminiscing about his life. His only friends are his neighbour, Asleik, a traditional fisherman-farmer, and Beyer, a gallerist who lives in the city. There, in Bjorgvin, lives another Asle, also a painter but lonely and consumed by alcohol. Asle and Asle are doppelgangers - two versions of the same person, two versions of the same life, both grappling with existential questions about life, death, love, light and shadow, faith and hopelessness. Written in melodious and hypnotic 'slow prose', The Other Name: Septology I-II is an indelible and poignant exploration of the human condition by Jon Fosse, 'a major European writer' (Karl Ove Knausgaard), in which everything is always there, and past and present flow together.

Asle is an ageing painter and widower who lives alone on the southwest coast of Norway. In nearby Bjorgvin another Asle, also a painter, is lying in the hospital, consumed by alcoholism. Asle and Asle are doppelgangers - two versions of the same person, two versions of the same life, both grappling with existential questions.In this final instalment of Jon Fosse'sSeptology, the majorprose work by 'the Beckett of the twenty-first century' (Le Monde), we follow the lives of the two Asles as youngeradults in flashbacks: the narrator meets his lifelong love,Ales; joins the Catholic Church; and makes a living bytrying to paint away all the pictures stuck in his mind.ANew Name: Septology VI-VIIis a transcendent explorationof the human condition, and a radically other readingexperience - incantatory, hypnotic, and utterly unique.