Trilogy

by Jon Fosse, May-Brit Akerholt, Kåre Conradi (Narrator)

Winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature

This is Jon Fosse’s critically acclaimed, luminous love story about Asle and Alida, two lovers trying to find their place in this world. Homeless and sleepless, they wander around Bergen in the rain, trying to make a life for themselves and the child they expect. Through a rich web of historical, cultural, and theological allusions, Fosse constructs a modern parable of injustice, resistance, crime, and redemption. Consisting of three novellas (Wakefulness, Olav’s Dreams, and Weariness), Trilogy is a haunting, mysterious, and poignant evocation of love, for which Fosse received The Nordic Council’s Prize for Literature in 2015.

Genres: Audiobook, Fiction, Book Club

Audible Audio

Published June 11, 2024

About the author

Jon Olav Fosse was born in Haugesund, Norway and currently lives in Bergen. He debuted in 1983 with the novel Raudt, svart (Red, black). His first play, Og aldri skal vi skiljast, was performed and published in 1994. Jon Fosse has written novels, short stories, poetry, children's books, essays and plays. His works have been translated into more than forty languages. He is widely considered as one of the world's greatest contemporary playwrights. Fosse was made a chevalier of the Ordre national du Mérite of France in 2007. Fosse also has been ranked number 83 on the list of the Top 100 living geniuses by The Daily Telegraph.

He was awarded The Nobel Prize in Literature 2023 "for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable".

Since 2011, Fosse has been granted the Grotten, an honorary residence owned by the Norwegian state and located on the premises of the Royal Palace in the city centre of Oslo. The Grotten is given as a permanent residence to a person specifically bestowed this honour by the King of Norway for their contributions to Norwegian arts and culture.

Reviews

[Darwin8u · Rating 4 out of 5]

Will review later. Lovely, dark, beautiful.

[Lise Austad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Helt nydelig! Hørte på lydbok (som anbefales) men vil lese den fysiske boka også. Gikk en ekstra tur eller fem for å kunne høre mer og mer.. boka var så fin og trist. Anbefales til alle!

[Anne Dahl · Rating 5 out of 5]

After magnificent Pirkko Saisio (her trilogy - Pienij yhteinen jaettava, Vastavalo, Punainen erokirja (in Finnish))
more masters to my ears i.e. yet another Jon Fosse.
I think I will not get enough Fosse. (As I will never get enough Pirkko Saisio. Somehow these are getting tangeled in my brains, these two masters, their voices, but what the heck, let it be so).
Just love love love everything Fosse writes, everything in his writing, this meditation of words he offers, the round and round going story, the rhythm in the prose written like no one else.
In this book, yet again or just newly there are Asle and Alida, two lovers, young penniless with a baby on the way, homeless in rainy Bergen.
The same mystical haunting atmosphere and themes (maybe) - injustice, redemption, resistance - as before and stuctured in three parts (melting together) Wakefulness, Olav ´s Dreams, Weariness).
Loved every line in this book.

[Sluglife420 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of all the books that are so bereft of punctuation this one is my favourite. This shit so sad.

[Dean Wilcox · Rating 4 out of 5]

I suppose if I had read this book before Septology I'd have given it five stars. There is something hypnotic about Fosse's writing. Repetitive, thoughtful, searching. The fluidity between present, memory, and projection is so beautiful and so human. A lovely read.

[juicyD · Rating 3 out of 5]

like butter melting on your eyes

[Ian Baaske · Rating 5 out of 5]

Idk maybe I like everything

[perfectprincess1444 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I purchased this book in a train station in Norway in July of 2024, during my high school graduation trip to Scandinavia. I’m glad I waited to read it; I don’t think I would have appreciated it as I do now. The writing is so captivating: it’s like poetry. It took a while to get used to the never ending sentences and no quotation marks, but in my opinion, that made it more haunting. I’m curious what I might have thought about this book had I read it in three separate segments instead of one story immediately after the other.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

First novella was nice, lovely and simple.
Second Novella instantly twisted what I thought was possible and blew my mind by the end. Beautiful and devastating. Was able to fully appreciate the prose in this novella. The flow was unstoppable.
Third Novella brought it all home. Peaceful waves

This one is staying on the shelf to gaze at, so I can remember what a lovely ride it was, till I pick it up and travel down the beautiful blue fjord with this book again.

[Jack Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing how much can be done with so little. The prose is sparse and pure interior monologue, but it is compellingly sustained and there are moments of real beauty. Exceptional writing (and translation). Simultaneously a tender love story, a story of poverty and its effects, and a brutal serial killer novella.

[Rich Rosenthal · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are hundreds of reasons that I can use to try to tell myself why I stopped reading.
But this short novel was what got me back into the habit. The story starts off similarly to a famous biblical couple soon to be with child seeking shelter in a foreign land. As the three novellas reveal themselves, the love story slowly becomes a murder mystery.

[Sid · Rating 5 out of 5]

The trick to read Jon Fosse is by reading fast and skimming over lines in a singsong voice. I was heartbroken as the tragedy befell generation after generation, with even the children being doomed to their parent's fate.

[Greta Coutinho · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hipnotizada pela literatura de Jon Fosse! Um mergulho profundo no tempo, na memória, na mística da existência psíquica humana 🖤

[Christian Rummey · Rating 5 out of 5]

It started slow, but eventually gets there.

[Dinakar Guthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly gripping and emotionally moving. Fosse has a unique prose style but the payoff is well worth it.

[Georgios Gavriilidis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poorly written, obviously untrue, and casting an unfair dark stain on society.

[Kristian Djuve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lest på norsk. Fader så bra. Blei sugd inn i da til tross for spesielle greier.

[Karel · Rating 1 out of 5]

My book club read it, we all dislike it. Too repetitive, tiresome and boring. I couldn't believe it won an award. It is a short book, but it is so cold, so wet and so tired.

[Luis Villarreal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible

[Simona Žeimytė · Rating 5 out of 5]

Norwegian meditation with such a unique langue and world it creates. You'll meet people of a few words, reserved and deep, naive and brutal. And who love forever.