New York Times Editors' Choice
Longlisted for the 2020 International Booker Prize
"Fosse's fusing of the commonplace and the existential, together with
his dramatic forays into the past, make for a relentlessly consuming
work: already Septology feels momentous."--The Guardian
"Fosse's portrait of intersecting lives is that rare metaphysical
novel that readers will find compulsively readable."--Publishers
Weekly, Starred Review
The Other Name follows the lives of two men living close to each other
on the west coast of Norway. The year is coming to a close and Asle, an
aging painter and widower, is reminiscing about his life. He lives
alone, his only friends being his neighbor, Åsleik, a bachelor and
traditional Norwegian fisherman-farmer, and Beyer, a gallerist who lives
in Bjørgvin, a couple hours' drive south of Dylgja, where he lives.
There, in Bjørgvin, lives another Asle, also a painter. He and the
narrator are doppelgangers--two versions of the same person, two
versions of the same life.
Written in hypnotic prose that shifts between the first and third
person, The Other Name calls into question concrete notions around
subjectivity and the self. What makes us who we are? And why do we lead
one life and not another? Through flashbacks, Fosse deftly explores the
convergences and divergences in the lives of both Asles, slowly building
towards a decisive encounter between them both. A writer at the zenith
of his career, with The Other Name, the first two volumes in his
Septology, Fosse presents us with an indelible and poignant
exploration of the human condition that will endure as his masterpiece.
