Jon Fosse Books In Order

Publication Order of Septology Books

Publication Order of Trilogien Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Plays

Publication Order of Poetry Books

Publication Order of Dalkey Archive Essentials Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Jon Olav Fosse is a literary fiction, poet, playwright, and translator from Norway who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2023.
He was awarded the prize for his inventive prose and plays that the judges proclaimed give voice to things that most people lack the words to say.

Over the years, Fosse has penned more than seventy theater plays, novels, essays, and children’s fiction works, which have been so popular that they have been translated into more than fifty languages.
Given the popularity of his plays, he has become one of the most performed playwrights in Norway only behind the great Henrik Ibsen.

His works have been performed on thousands of stages across the globe while his deeply introspective and minimalist plays have come to be deemed a contemporary continuation of the Ibsen tradition from the 19th century.
Most of his plays have also been classified in the post-dramatic theatre tradition as his novels are regarded as avant-garde and postmodern literature due to their lyricism, minimalism, and use of syntax in unorthodox formats.

Jon Fosse was born in the small town of Haugesund in Norway in 1959 but spent most of his childhood in Strandebarm.

He was brought up in a very pious family that were Quakers and this would shape his spiritual views that sometimes show up in his novels.

He was twelve years old when he began writing, even though what he always wanted to be when he was an adult was a rock guitarist.

He would later enroll at the University of Bergen and specialize in comparative literature as he had gotten more interested in a career as an author over the years.

However, upon graduation, he got into lecturing and has been a lecturer on creative writing at the Hordaland-based Academy of Writing and also worked as a journalist.

He has also worked as a literary consultant and worked on the translation of a bible into Norwegian.

In 2011, he was awarded “The Grotto,” an honorary artist’s residence for life by the Norwegian government. However, Fosse currently makes his home in Frekhaug near Bergen and has another home in a suburb of Oslo.
While he published “Raudt, Svart” his debut novel in 1983, he has often said that his actual literary debut was “Han” a short story that he published in 1981 in a student newspaper.

After Jon Fosse established himself as a children’s fiction author, novelist, essayist, and poet, he would also become a notable playwright.

An interesting thing is that he had always been skeptical about the theater. However, he penned his first play in 1992 and has often said that this would be the greates
t revelation of his entire writing career.
He published “Someone is Going to Come” as his first play, but his first ever performed play was “And Never Shall We Part” at the Bergen National Theater in 1994.
During those early years, Fosse used to write at a fast pace and appeared on some important national stages and many abroad too.

In 1999, he got his international breakthrough when “Someone is Going to Come” was staged in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris under the directorship of Claude Regy, the French director.
In 2000, his play “The Name” was part of the Salzburg Festival, where it had been submitted by the Schaubuhne Theater in Berlin.

It was from these productions that Fosse would gain much notoriety online. As it stands his more than thirty plays have been performed all over the world.
In addition to his writing, he sometimes translated and reviewed many works by Norwegian authors.

“Septology I” by Jon Fosse is all about a special type of stream of consciousness known as the I, Aisles, where thoughts are something of a circulation or vortex rather than a simple stream.

The work is penned in the first person perspective and follows the thoughts of the lead which are not arranged in consecutive or separate points, even though the narrative style of the author makes reading it neither tiring nor heavy.

Through Asle the protagonist, we get insights into his life and what it could have been if he had taken a different direction. We also look into his life through his alter egos with whom he interacts in the work, just like you would with real-life characters.
The protagonist recently became a Catholic convert and similar to the author, he is an artist even though he is a painter rather than a writer. Through his art, he expresses what he believes is too deep to be explained with words.

“Septology II” is the second novel of the Septology series by Jon Fosse that continues to follow the protagonist and his thoughts on art, religion, and life, while he drives between Bergen and his home.

At the start of this novel, he drives home, even as Asle his namesake is admitted to the hospital and he has to take care of his female Bard.

Upon arriving home, he starts thinking about an event when he was young when he and his sister had gone to the fjord. When their mother who feared they would drown heard of it, she almost lost her mind.
She had once lost someone to drowning in her childhood while on a jumping trip and as such her apprehension is understandable.

The work is a masterpiece as the author puts before us a meditative reflection on possible lives, art, death, memory, God, time, loneliness, and friendship.
All in all, it does seem that Jon Fosse just keeps getting better with each successive edition of the “Septology” series.

Jon Fosse’s novel “The Septology III” continues to follow widower and painter Asle who makes her home in Dylgja. His only friends are gallery owner Beyer from Bergen and Asleik his neighbor.
In this outing, Asle is found with three crowns in his pocket and is accused of stealing them by his mother, even though he claims he found them outside the bakery.

Meanwhile, he has been having images of his sister’s death flash across his mind and he decides to play the guitar and play in a band as a form of distraction.

He believes he will make money and women since women are known to love rockers but what they play is mostly noise.

In the third volume, we also get insights into how his mother pressured his father into getting a driver’s license which was particularly emasculating.

It is a very interesting work that gives you a lot to think about.