Damion Searls deserves high praise for this wonderful translation. Jon Fosse is not an easy writer; to replicate his dense, poetic prose requires skill, knowledge and an extraordinary amount of work.

It is one easy to catch the rhythm of the language in Fosse’s books. I found that I like reading his books aloud; the experience resembles that of meditation. It requires deep focus to follow the dense, poetic form and the pages-long sentences. The repetition makes the reading hypnotic and haunting. It brims with melancholy and emotion. It’s beautiful.

Two older men, both painters. Both called Asle. They both live on the south-west coast of Norway. One lives in the city of Bjørgvin, which appears to be Bergen, the other in a remote small place called Dylgja. The first one is an alcoholic, twice divorced and estranged from his three children. He lives alone in an apartment with his dog. The second one is a widow, childless. He also lives a solitary live, his only companion is a fisherman who has a small farm nearby. He gave up drinking and smoking years before and recently he has converted to Catholicism. The two Alses are doppelgangers, they are 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 hopefulness.

The Other Name is an extraordinary existential narrative, almost mystical and utterly compelling.