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Vaim
Der Auftakt zu Jon Fosses neuer Mit der Kleinstadt Vaim hat der Nobelpreisträger wieder ein literarisches Universum geschaffen.
Ein Mann steigt in sein Boot, um über den Fjord in die Großstadt zu fahren. In jüngeren Jahren hat Jatgeir häufig Ausflüge nach Bjørgvin gemacht, Bars und Restaurants besucht und von der Begegnung mit einer Frau geträumt, die er lieben könnte. Dieses Mal will er Nadel und Faden kaufen, was sich als schwerer herausstellt als gedacht. Als er von den Kaufleuten betrogen wird, macht er sich angewidert von den Großstädtern auf den Rückweg und entscheidet spontan, auf einer Insel haltzumachen. Dort trifft er Eline wieder, seine Jugendliebe, nach der das Boot benannt ist. Eline hat gerade ihren Mann verlassen ...
Vaim erzählt meisterhaft und mit Sinn für die Absurdität unserer Existenz von einer Dreiecksbeziehung, von kleinen und großen Booten, von passiven Männern und einer ungewöhnlich entschiedenen Frau, deren Willen man sich besser beugt.
Ein Mann steigt in sein Boot, um über den Fjord in die Großstadt zu fahren. In jüngeren Jahren hat Jatgeir häufig Ausflüge nach Bjørgvin gemacht, Bars und Restaurants besucht und von der Begegnung mit einer Frau geträumt, die er lieben könnte. Dieses Mal will er Nadel und Faden kaufen, was sich als schwerer herausstellt als gedacht. Als er von den Kaufleuten betrogen wird, macht er sich angewidert von den Großstädtern auf den Rückweg und entscheidet spontan, auf einer Insel haltzumachen. Dort trifft er Eline wieder, seine Jugendliebe, nach der das Boot benannt ist. Eline hat gerade ihren Mann verlassen ...
Vaim erzählt meisterhaft und mit Sinn für die Absurdität unserer Existenz von einer Dreiecksbeziehung, von kleinen und großen Booten, von passiven Männern und einer ungewöhnlich entschiedenen Frau, deren Willen man sich besser beugt.
1 pages, Audio CD
First published September 5, 2025
99 people are currently reading
2128 people want to read
About the author
Jon Fosse
238 books1,829 followersJon 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 172 reviews
October 19, 2025
I don't know what I read but I love what I read, I mean I know what I read, but am a bit confused about what I read, yes, and does that make sense, probably not, not to someone who isn't familiar with Fosse's writing style, yes, but someone who knows his works inside out, would surly understand me, yes, they would, and yes, I loved Vaim a bit less than his 'Melancholy', 'Aliss at the Fire', 'Trilogy' and 'Morning and Evening', yes, a tiny bit less, because it was less poetic I suppose, and I just found out that Vaim is the first book in a trilogy, which is good news, yes, it is good news and now you ask me what the book is about and I can tell you it's about a village called Vaim and three characters who tell their story, yes, it's a story told from three perspectives, a story revolving around the themes of solitude, desire, the past, love and death
November 20, 2025
Ever since my acquaintance with Fosse’s Septology, I have held a special in my heart for his words. The feeling of the sublime is real. It’s not popcorn entertainment. It taps into a latent process that is deeper. I yearn for the realization of this process at least once a year for some weeks. Not surprisingly, it comes with the changing of the Canadian seasons and it comes when the cold is setting in. I don’t partake in any other repetition-based meditative practices. Some have Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō, others the Sufi whirling, and many Tai Chi or Qigong. I have Fosse.
Vaim is the single time I have seen a recent Nobel winner not falter at the first time of asking after winning the prize. It is sufficiently different from Fosse’s body of work, exploring the same themes in a novel manner. I think about the power of the “yes” and “no”. In no way do I think about them as being peppered into the text randomly. Your emotional state changes when you read a character’s inner monologue that relies predominantly on one or the other. I mean, think about it. Fundamentally open vs. fundamentally closed. Inviting vs. rejecting, seeking vs. denying. And don’t get me started on the tangibility of death in Fosse’s text. How does he do it? I see the literal shape of God and death in a corporeal sense, fading to memory and formed by emotions. The empty shape of death glimpsed by Fosse characters invite you to pour into them your own story. That should be patented. Why else am I finding myself shedding real tears as I read about the back of a character walking away or a boat calmly progressing into the night?
Vaim is the single time I have seen a recent Nobel winner not falter at the first time of asking after winning the prize. It is sufficiently different from Fosse’s body of work, exploring the same themes in a novel manner. I think about the power of the “yes” and “no”. In no way do I think about them as being peppered into the text randomly. Your emotional state changes when you read a character’s inner monologue that relies predominantly on one or the other. I mean, think about it. Fundamentally open vs. fundamentally closed. Inviting vs. rejecting, seeking vs. denying. And don’t get me started on the tangibility of death in Fosse’s text. How does he do it? I see the literal shape of God and death in a corporeal sense, fading to memory and formed by emotions. The empty shape of death glimpsed by Fosse characters invite you to pour into them your own story. That should be patented. Why else am I finding myself shedding real tears as I read about the back of a character walking away or a boat calmly progressing into the night?
December 25, 2025
Drei Kapitel, drei Perspektiven auf die gleichen Vorkommnisse, im Zentrum eine ungewöhnliche Frau.
Über den Inhalt, den Verlauf sollte man im Vorfeld am besten gar nichts wissen, einfach drauf los lesen und treiben lassen, am besten man verzichtet sogar auf den Klappentext, so bleibt die Story am spannendsten.
Ich hatte zuletzt bei Fosse immer das Gefühl, gerade seinen besten Roman gelesen zu haben und diesmal ist es genau so. Anders als bei einigen anderen Romanen hat Vaim einen ziemlich starken Plot. Für Fosse-Süchtige allerfeinstes Dope.
Über den Inhalt, den Verlauf sollte man im Vorfeld am besten gar nichts wissen, einfach drauf los lesen und treiben lassen, am besten man verzichtet sogar auf den Klappentext, so bleibt die Story am spannendsten.
Ich hatte zuletzt bei Fosse immer das Gefühl, gerade seinen besten Roman gelesen zu haben und diesmal ist es genau so. Anders als bei einigen anderen Romanen hat Vaim einen ziemlich starken Plot. Für Fosse-Süchtige allerfeinstes Dope.
November 1, 2025
Fosse's first novel since winning the Nobel. The first in a three-part series. Interesting to see where the thread on all of this leads. Yes. Interested. Fosse's ability to tell a simple story with all the complexities of the inner world, the indecision, the second-guessing, is amazing for its penetration. It reminds me, in a literary sense, of those ecological surveys (line transects) done in universities where they will explore all life along one foot, one meter of string: describing every insect, plant, and fungi that comes into contact with the thread. Fosse does this with thoughts, with people, with towns and relationships.
October 26, 2025
Pensiero dopo 20 pagine: bene, ma sono le “solite” cose ed è molto simile all’inizio della Settologia.
Pensiero dopo l’ultima pagina: ok, è un’altra mina, un vortice da cui non si riesce ad uscire. La seconda e la terza parte ampliano e migliorano la situazione di partenza. Quando escono i prossimi capitoli?
Pensieri generali: basta trilogie in volumi separati di 100 pagine; copertina italiana tremenda.
[82/100]
Pensiero dopo l’ultima pagina: ok, è un’altra mina, un vortice da cui non si riesce ad uscire. La seconda e la terza parte ampliano e migliorano la situazione di partenza. Quando escono i prossimi capitoli?
Pensieri generali: basta trilogie in volumi separati di 100 pagine; copertina italiana tremenda.
[82/100]
October 2, 2025
Fosse being Fosse. Fantastic novel told from three different POV’s that all connect. Cannot wait for book two of the trilogy !
December 2, 2025
(3.75) Repetition. Repetition. Back-pedal. Repetition. Next. Back-pedal. Repetition.
...and so on and so forth.
This is the formula for Fosse in his current style over the last decade or so. After the underwhelming 'A Shining', which I thought was put out directly after winning the Nobel Prize for Literature as purely an opportunistic cash-grab, I thought I was done with his newer works, yet I found myself gravitating towards this new, short hardcover in my local bookstore.
Books like 'Aliss in the Fire', 'Morning and Evening', 'Trilogy' and the behemoth 'Septology' are where Fosse shines, but I found myself totally enveloped with 'Vaim' since it seemed like something different, yet more of the same. Told from three different perspectives about focusing on one of the main characters, you find yourself getting a little bit of the story here and there, each repeating each other, but in different ways with different bits that you didn't know before.
Do I believe it's as good as his earlier work? Not entirely, but I will admit that even when he does put something else out, I will buy it once again.
...and so on and so forth.
This is the formula for Fosse in his current style over the last decade or so. After the underwhelming 'A Shining', which I thought was put out directly after winning the Nobel Prize for Literature as purely an opportunistic cash-grab, I thought I was done with his newer works, yet I found myself gravitating towards this new, short hardcover in my local bookstore.
Books like 'Aliss in the Fire', 'Morning and Evening', 'Trilogy' and the behemoth 'Septology' are where Fosse shines, but I found myself totally enveloped with 'Vaim' since it seemed like something different, yet more of the same. Told from three different perspectives about focusing on one of the main characters, you find yourself getting a little bit of the story here and there, each repeating each other, but in different ways with different bits that you didn't know before.
Do I believe it's as good as his earlier work? Not entirely, but I will admit that even when he does put something else out, I will buy it once again.
December 27, 2025
Vaim constrói-se em três partes narradas por vozes diferentes, mas escritas num registo quase indistinguível. Nesta obra, as personagens não se afirmam pela forma como falam, mas pelo modo como cedem, esperam ou se apagam.
É uma obra que não tem tantas repetições como as anteriores que li do autor, por isso um pouco diferente neste estilo apesar de se reconhecer Fosse.
Na primeira parte, o narrador é Jatgeir — um homem solitário e idoso, marcado por uma vida de aceitação silenciosa. Conhecido por dizer sempre que sim, carrega até no nome essa submissão, reduzido a um diminutivo que os outros lhe colaram uma vez que o seu verdadeiro nome é Geir (Ja=sim).
O gesto aparentemente banal que o move — ir à cidade comprar agulha e linha para coser um botão — torna-se um dos símbolos centrais do livro. Jatgeir não procura mudar nada de essencial na sua vida; procura apenas remendar. O botão representa o mínimo necessário para manter tudo junto, para evitar que o rasgão se torne visível. É assim que ele vive: a segurar o que já está a desfazer-se.
A humilhação atinge o ponto máximo quando paga caro por uma linha velha, retirada da roupa de um morto. Jatgeir tenta coser a sua vida com restos de outras vidas acabadas. Aceita, como sempre aceitou apesar de se revoltar contra si.
Tem um barco que se chama Eline, o amor secreto da sua juventude. É Eline quem o leva.Mesmo tantos anos depois. É terno… e triste também. Fosse é impecável a mostrar como uma vida se pode construir mais através dos silêncios do que dos acontecimentos.
Na segunda parte, o narrador é Elias, o único amigo de Jatgeir. Também solitário, mas diferente. Elias não é permissivo da mesma forma. Observa, percebe, guarda distância. É através dele que sentimos o vazio deixado pela ausência e a estranheza do tempo: Fosse introduz a espiritualidade sem a explicar, apenas deixando-a existir num determinado episódio entre Elias e Jatgeir.
A terceira parte é narrada por Olaf , marido de Josefine — chamado Frank pela mesma, a mulher que atravessa todas as histórias. Josefine (chamada Eline na obra) muda nomes, invade casas, redefine identidades. Nunca suporta a solidão. Vive com Jatgeir quando ainda é casada uma vez que este cede a tudo.
"agora não era a questão do que eu queria ou não queria, agora era o querer de outrem que se impunha, era como se tudo tivesse mudado de uma só vez, agora era a vontade de Eline"
Regressa depois a Olaf, e mesmo na morte escolhe companhia. Quer ser sepultada junto de Jatgeir. Até na sepultura, Josefine organiza os lugares.
Josefine substitui pessoas. Não remenda: troca. Olaf é o único que abdica — solta o que tem, não tenta segurar nada.
Eline não tem nenhum capítulo onde é a narradora mas o leitor pode conhecer a personagem através dos relatos dos três homens, do que está escrito e o que está nas entrelinhas.
Em Vaim, Jon Fosse escreve sobre pessoas que não sabem impor limites, sobre vidas que se desfazem lentamente, não por grandes tragédias, mas por pequenas cedências sucessivas. A metáfora do botão atravessa o livro como aviso silencioso: há existências gastas, quando o essencial já se perdeu.
Foi uma leitura que me fez lembrar, em parte, o livro "Casa de Barcos" do mesmo autor onde Fosse escreve sobre: homens socialmente apagados, sem poder, afectivamente analfabetos, profundamente leais, mas invisíveis.
Fosse mostra que na cidade de Vaim: a sociedade condena facilmente, mas, ignora décadas de solidão e ignora o custo de dizer sempre “sim”.
É um romance sobre como se vive quando nunca se diz não e o que acontece quando se diz sempre "sim".
O que Vaim é, afinal:
Não é um livro sobre amor.
Nem sobre velhice.
É um livro sobre:
o perigo de viver sem se afirmar
e o custo tardio de dizer sempre “sim”
É uma obra que não tem tantas repetições como as anteriores que li do autor, por isso um pouco diferente neste estilo apesar de se reconhecer Fosse.
Na primeira parte, o narrador é Jatgeir — um homem solitário e idoso, marcado por uma vida de aceitação silenciosa. Conhecido por dizer sempre que sim, carrega até no nome essa submissão, reduzido a um diminutivo que os outros lhe colaram uma vez que o seu verdadeiro nome é Geir (Ja=sim).
O gesto aparentemente banal que o move — ir à cidade comprar agulha e linha para coser um botão — torna-se um dos símbolos centrais do livro. Jatgeir não procura mudar nada de essencial na sua vida; procura apenas remendar. O botão representa o mínimo necessário para manter tudo junto, para evitar que o rasgão se torne visível. É assim que ele vive: a segurar o que já está a desfazer-se.
A humilhação atinge o ponto máximo quando paga caro por uma linha velha, retirada da roupa de um morto. Jatgeir tenta coser a sua vida com restos de outras vidas acabadas. Aceita, como sempre aceitou apesar de se revoltar contra si.
Tem um barco que se chama Eline, o amor secreto da sua juventude. É Eline quem o leva.Mesmo tantos anos depois. É terno… e triste também. Fosse é impecável a mostrar como uma vida se pode construir mais através dos silêncios do que dos acontecimentos.
Na segunda parte, o narrador é Elias, o único amigo de Jatgeir. Também solitário, mas diferente. Elias não é permissivo da mesma forma. Observa, percebe, guarda distância. É através dele que sentimos o vazio deixado pela ausência e a estranheza do tempo: Fosse introduz a espiritualidade sem a explicar, apenas deixando-a existir num determinado episódio entre Elias e Jatgeir.
A terceira parte é narrada por Olaf , marido de Josefine — chamado Frank pela mesma, a mulher que atravessa todas as histórias. Josefine (chamada Eline na obra) muda nomes, invade casas, redefine identidades. Nunca suporta a solidão. Vive com Jatgeir quando ainda é casada uma vez que este cede a tudo.
"agora não era a questão do que eu queria ou não queria, agora era o querer de outrem que se impunha, era como se tudo tivesse mudado de uma só vez, agora era a vontade de Eline"
Regressa depois a Olaf, e mesmo na morte escolhe companhia. Quer ser sepultada junto de Jatgeir. Até na sepultura, Josefine organiza os lugares.
Josefine substitui pessoas. Não remenda: troca. Olaf é o único que abdica — solta o que tem, não tenta segurar nada.
Eline não tem nenhum capítulo onde é a narradora mas o leitor pode conhecer a personagem através dos relatos dos três homens, do que está escrito e o que está nas entrelinhas.
Em Vaim, Jon Fosse escreve sobre pessoas que não sabem impor limites, sobre vidas que se desfazem lentamente, não por grandes tragédias, mas por pequenas cedências sucessivas. A metáfora do botão atravessa o livro como aviso silencioso: há existências gastas, quando o essencial já se perdeu.
Foi uma leitura que me fez lembrar, em parte, o livro "Casa de Barcos" do mesmo autor onde Fosse escreve sobre: homens socialmente apagados, sem poder, afectivamente analfabetos, profundamente leais, mas invisíveis.
Fosse mostra que na cidade de Vaim: a sociedade condena facilmente, mas, ignora décadas de solidão e ignora o custo de dizer sempre “sim”.
É um romance sobre como se vive quando nunca se diz não e o que acontece quando se diz sempre "sim".
O que Vaim é, afinal:
Não é um livro sobre amor.
Nem sobre velhice.
É um livro sobre:
o perigo de viver sem se afirmar
e o custo tardio de dizer sempre “sim”
December 20, 2025
and I say, I'll do that and I think that this is totally incomprehensible, but it's like I have no choice of my own, because once Eline has decided something, yes, then it's just going to happen like she says, yes,
Vaim translated by Damion Searls is Jon Fosse's first novel since his richly-deserved Nobel Prize.
This is the first in an intended trilogy with Vaim Hotell, due on 1 september 2026, and Vaim Vekeblad (likely Vaim Weekly in English) on 1 September 2027, with I suspect Searls' English translations to follow very soon after.
The novel takes its title from the ficticious village / small town on the West Norwegian coasts where one of the key characters, Jatgeir lives, Fosse having taken the name from a local nickname for the real-life Vadheim, as Fosse has said (ChatGPT translation) 'with a shop, a hotel, a small newspaper office, a quay, and a café'.
The novel is narrated by three different men and over a period of some years (or 'a year and a day' apart as the characters are fond of saying, meaning a longer period).
- Jatgeir lives alone in Vaim, his sole friend Elias who he seldom sees. Jatgeir owns a motorboat which years ago he named Eline, after a local girl on whom he had an unconfessed crush, Eline moving to Bjorgvin (Fosse's preferred term for the city of Bergen) some time later, and later apparently getting married to a fisherman. Jatgeir takes his boat to Bjorgvin, ostensibly on a shopping trip to buy a needle and thread to sew on a button, but when he is swindled takes his boat to another nearby fishing village, Sund. Moored at the quay, where he expects to stay overnight, he unexpectedly is approached by Eline, who turns out to live there (as he recalls he may remember, although he's not seen her since she left Vaim) who rather abruptly announces she is leaving her husband, Frank, a fisherman, and is returning to Vaim to live with him.
- Elias narrates the middle section, something of a short bridge in the novel, explaining some of the aftermath of Eline's return to Vaim, and his tale take us into ghost story territory.
- Frank, Eline's previously estranged husband, then takes up the tale, which if anything becomes even stranger.
Although the novel is narrated by the three men, the key figures at its centre is the powerful Eline, who imposes her will on each of them, ending up with two boats named after her (Jatgeir's motorboat and Frank's sjark ).
We also learn that few of the characters - Elias the exception - go by their real name - Jatgeir a nickname for Geir since childhood, reflecting his rather laconic assent to anything; Eline actually short for Josephine, which she reveals only as she is dying; and Frank, actually called Olaf by everyone else, simply a name Eline imposed on him when she first approached him in a bar in the city, and which she has stubbornly used ever since:
... she had decided my name was Frank and so that was my name, nothing to discuss, I was Frank, and in all the years we eventually lived together she never once called me Olaf, only Frank, and I have to admit that it took me a long time to get used to also being called Frank, as well as Olaf, to tell the truth I never really got used to it, and that wasn't so strange since she was the only person who called me Frank, everyone else used my real name, Olaf, no more, no less, Olaf pure and simple, but actually it was fine to be called Frank too, I got used to it, so it was no wonder that people in Sund started calling me Frank-Olaf, or Olaf-Frank, and calling her, Eline, Franka, or sometimes Frenka, or Frenke-Franka or Franke-Frenke, almost no one ever used her actual name, Eline, neither in Sund nor in Vaim, she mostly went by Frenka, or Franke-Frenka, probably no one, yes, except me, ever called her Eline, and actually it was pretty rude that they never called her Eline, her real name, although actually her birth name was Josephine, she told me that once, privately, and that's the name on her tombstone, so there aren't many people, aside from the few so to speak initiates, yes, actually maybe just the few people who came to her funeral, where the pastor used her real name, Josephine, who know what Eline's, or Frenka's, or Franke-Frenka's real name was...
This is, as Fosse has acknowledged, a rather lighter and less ambitious work than Septology, a form of reaction to both that work and the subsequent Nobel Prize (which had clearly been on Fosse's mind for two decades) - but then Septology is for me comfortably the 21st century's greatest novel. Still highly worthwhile and I eagerly await the rest of the Vaim trilogy - which unlike the Septology are designed to be read alone, linked primarily by the Vaim setting.
By almost any other novelist's standards a 5 star read but as it's Fosse, and I could only award Septology five rather than the seven stars it deserved, 4 stars.
Vaim translated by Damion Searls is Jon Fosse's first novel since his richly-deserved Nobel Prize.
This is the first in an intended trilogy with Vaim Hotell, due on 1 september 2026, and Vaim Vekeblad (likely Vaim Weekly in English) on 1 September 2027, with I suspect Searls' English translations to follow very soon after.
The novel takes its title from the ficticious village / small town on the West Norwegian coasts where one of the key characters, Jatgeir lives, Fosse having taken the name from a local nickname for the real-life Vadheim, as Fosse has said (ChatGPT translation) 'with a shop, a hotel, a small newspaper office, a quay, and a café'.
The novel is narrated by three different men and over a period of some years (or 'a year and a day' apart as the characters are fond of saying, meaning a longer period).
- Jatgeir lives alone in Vaim, his sole friend Elias who he seldom sees. Jatgeir owns a motorboat which years ago he named Eline, after a local girl on whom he had an unconfessed crush, Eline moving to Bjorgvin (Fosse's preferred term for the city of Bergen) some time later, and later apparently getting married to a fisherman. Jatgeir takes his boat to Bjorgvin, ostensibly on a shopping trip to buy a needle and thread to sew on a button, but when he is swindled takes his boat to another nearby fishing village, Sund. Moored at the quay, where he expects to stay overnight, he unexpectedly is approached by Eline, who turns out to live there (as he recalls he may remember, although he's not seen her since she left Vaim) who rather abruptly announces she is leaving her husband, Frank, a fisherman, and is returning to Vaim to live with him.
- Elias narrates the middle section, something of a short bridge in the novel, explaining some of the aftermath of Eline's return to Vaim, and his tale take us into ghost story territory.
- Frank, Eline's previously estranged husband, then takes up the tale, which if anything becomes even stranger.
Although the novel is narrated by the three men, the key figures at its centre is the powerful Eline, who imposes her will on each of them, ending up with two boats named after her (Jatgeir's motorboat and Frank's sjark ).
We also learn that few of the characters - Elias the exception - go by their real name - Jatgeir a nickname for Geir since childhood, reflecting his rather laconic assent to anything; Eline actually short for Josephine, which she reveals only as she is dying; and Frank, actually called Olaf by everyone else, simply a name Eline imposed on him when she first approached him in a bar in the city, and which she has stubbornly used ever since:
... she had decided my name was Frank and so that was my name, nothing to discuss, I was Frank, and in all the years we eventually lived together she never once called me Olaf, only Frank, and I have to admit that it took me a long time to get used to also being called Frank, as well as Olaf, to tell the truth I never really got used to it, and that wasn't so strange since she was the only person who called me Frank, everyone else used my real name, Olaf, no more, no less, Olaf pure and simple, but actually it was fine to be called Frank too, I got used to it, so it was no wonder that people in Sund started calling me Frank-Olaf, or Olaf-Frank, and calling her, Eline, Franka, or sometimes Frenka, or Frenke-Franka or Franke-Frenke, almost no one ever used her actual name, Eline, neither in Sund nor in Vaim, she mostly went by Frenka, or Franke-Frenka, probably no one, yes, except me, ever called her Eline, and actually it was pretty rude that they never called her Eline, her real name, although actually her birth name was Josephine, she told me that once, privately, and that's the name on her tombstone, so there aren't many people, aside from the few so to speak initiates, yes, actually maybe just the few people who came to her funeral, where the pastor used her real name, Josephine, who know what Eline's, or Frenka's, or Franke-Frenka's real name was...
This is, as Fosse has acknowledged, a rather lighter and less ambitious work than Septology, a form of reaction to both that work and the subsequent Nobel Prize (which had clearly been on Fosse's mind for two decades) - but then Septology is for me comfortably the 21st century's greatest novel. Still highly worthwhile and I eagerly await the rest of the Vaim trilogy - which unlike the Septology are designed to be read alone, linked primarily by the Vaim setting.
By almost any other novelist's standards a 5 star read but as it's Fosse, and I could only award Septology five rather than the seven stars it deserved, 4 stars.
November 17, 2025
A great novel that I’ll be rereading soon.
October 24, 2025
Does Fosse repeat himself? Does he? Repeat himself? Yes, oh yes, but only sometimes, sometimes Fosse repeats himself, yes, sometimes but only sometimes, yes, he might repeat himself, but that's just ol' Fosse, sometimes out repeating himself, yes, good ol' repetitive Fosse repeating himself
November 23, 2025
Zapanjujuća slojevitost za 120 strana krajnje jednostavne proze. Isprva mi je utisak bio da se ništa tu specijalno nije desilo, ali sa mrvom kritičkog razmišljanja ove suve nedelje postaje jasno da je ovo naslagana torta. Veoma samostalan roman za početak trilogije. Dok je Septologija bila o multiplicitetu života, religiji i anksioznosti, Vaim za sada sluti da je o emotivnoj povezanosti ljudi, priča, i predmeta. A Fose? Fose je uvek o ljudima i njihovim imenima.
4+
4+
November 1, 2025
I had never previously read anything by Jon Fosse, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2023, so I figured I’d start with his latest novel, Vaim. I do not know what I expected, but this was not it. The book is written in one long sentence separated into three parts, each with a different perspective. We have Jatgeir in Part One, taking his small boat to Bjørgvin (Bergen) to buy a needle and a spool of black thread. He meets his old flame on the quay, and she asks to join him. We have Elias in Part Two wondering if the person knocking at his door could be his friend Jatgier, whom he has not seen in over a year. We have Frank (aka Olaf) in Part Three, who tells of his initial meeting and relationship with Eline (she had also appeared in Jatgeir’s tale). These interconnected characters live or have lived in the small Norwegian village of Vaim.
This is an unconventional novel. It is exceptionally (and intentionally I’m sure) repetitive. The prose creates a “dreamlike” quality. Part One is setting the stage for connections with Parts Two and Three. Jatgeir has trouble saying “no” to anyone. Elias is wishy-washy about everything. Franck is conflict avoidant. I took from it that these three traits can cause difficulties in our lives. Fosse is also asking the reader to solve a mental puzzle, which is the part that worked best for me. Part One can get a little tedious, but I am glad I stayed with it. It is short, and in the end, I found it worthwhile. I am not sure this was the best place to start with Fosse, but I will certainly be reading more of his works.
This is an unconventional novel. It is exceptionally (and intentionally I’m sure) repetitive. The prose creates a “dreamlike” quality. Part One is setting the stage for connections with Parts Two and Three. Jatgeir has trouble saying “no” to anyone. Elias is wishy-washy about everything. Franck is conflict avoidant. I took from it that these three traits can cause difficulties in our lives. Fosse is also asking the reader to solve a mental puzzle, which is the part that worked best for me. Part One can get a little tedious, but I am glad I stayed with it. It is short, and in the end, I found it worthwhile. I am not sure this was the best place to start with Fosse, but I will certainly be reading more of his works.
October 11, 2025
Not top tier Fosse but still very enjoyable
November 21, 2025
Che bello tornare da Fosse. Anche se.
https://open.substack.com/pub/laura63...
https://open.substack.com/pub/laura63...
November 30, 2025
A strange little book of only 115 pages. Three sections, each narrated in the first person by a different man; Jatgeir, Elias and Frank (real name Olaf).
They are three very solitary men who are linked only by the rather bizarre actions of a woman called Eline.
Vaim is a very sparse book. Not a great deal happens and the time frame is quite hard to determine. Many years pass but the characters use the phrase ‘a year and a day’ to denote long periods of time, so that doesn’t help much. The passage of time is important, but perhaps the exact amount of time is not.
SPOILER ALERT - I'm about to give you the story, such as it is.
Here’s the plot. Jatgeir sails his boat to town to buy some cotton and a needle to sew buttons back onto his shirt. The first shopkeeper charges him 250 kroner (about 25 US$). He feels exploited but pays and leaves town to find somewhere smaller and less likely to rip him off. He sails to a smaller place, but the shopkeeper there also asks for 250 kroner, which he also pays even though he already has a needle ad cotton. He heads back to his boat to sleep for the night, but is woken by someone calling his name.
It is the woman Eline who is running away from her husband. Eline was Jatgeir’s schoolboy crush, although he never told her. He did, however, name his boat after her.
Eline demands that Jatgeir leave at once in case her fisherman husband returns. They leave to go back and live in Jatgeir’s family home.
The short second section is narrated by Elias, whose only friend was Jatgeir. Ever since Eline moved in with Jatgeir he has stopped visiting Elias, so he feels even more isolated.
Late one night there is a loud knocking on Elias’ door, but when he opens it there is no one there. There are no footprints in the snow. When he opens the door a second time he is surprised to find Jatgeir outside. They talk for a little while, before Jatgeir hurriedly leaves. A little while later Elias walks into town and discovers that Jatgeir has died and was found floating in the sea near his boat. The body was found several hours earlier, but Jatgeir’s visit was only a few minutes before Elias heard of the death.
In part III we have Frank’s story. We hear about his first meeting with Eline, where she names him Frank rather than his real name of Olaf. She meets him one night in a restaurant in town and demands that he and his two fishermen friends all leave at once and sail back home to their own island. Everyone does as she asks. She moves in with Frank.
Frank fills in some of the gaps in the narrative. A few months after Jatgeir dies, Eline comes back to find Frank again and tell him to pack up and leave at once to live with her in Jatgeir’s old house in Vaim. There is as little explanation about this return as there was about her leaving Frank. It all has to happen immediately in Eline’s world.
By this stage Frank has his own boat, which is also named Eline.
Eline wants to be buried next to Jatgeir, she tells Frank. But Elias dies first, and since Jatgeir was his only friend, Elias is buried next to him.
When Eline dies, she has to be buried on the other side of Elias.
That is it.
Things that I noticed. Everyone seems to have a fake name. Jatgeir’s real name is just Geir. Eline’s real name is Josephine, and Frank’s real name is Olaf. I. think Elias is the only person without a different name. Eline is the oddest of the four characters in the book. Although she does not narrate a section, most things seem to revolve around the impact she has on other people. Here is a little extract about the use of names:
And so it continues for some time.
This is apparently the first volume of the story and there are to be two more. I hope they improve a little, because while this was the same spare Fosse we know from earlier works, this is very thin on the ground.
They are three very solitary men who are linked only by the rather bizarre actions of a woman called Eline.
Vaim is a very sparse book. Not a great deal happens and the time frame is quite hard to determine. Many years pass but the characters use the phrase ‘a year and a day’ to denote long periods of time, so that doesn’t help much. The passage of time is important, but perhaps the exact amount of time is not.
SPOILER ALERT - I'm about to give you the story, such as it is.
Here’s the plot. Jatgeir sails his boat to town to buy some cotton and a needle to sew buttons back onto his shirt. The first shopkeeper charges him 250 kroner (about 25 US$). He feels exploited but pays and leaves town to find somewhere smaller and less likely to rip him off. He sails to a smaller place, but the shopkeeper there also asks for 250 kroner, which he also pays even though he already has a needle ad cotton. He heads back to his boat to sleep for the night, but is woken by someone calling his name.
It is the woman Eline who is running away from her husband. Eline was Jatgeir’s schoolboy crush, although he never told her. He did, however, name his boat after her.
Eline demands that Jatgeir leave at once in case her fisherman husband returns. They leave to go back and live in Jatgeir’s family home.
The short second section is narrated by Elias, whose only friend was Jatgeir. Ever since Eline moved in with Jatgeir he has stopped visiting Elias, so he feels even more isolated.
Late one night there is a loud knocking on Elias’ door, but when he opens it there is no one there. There are no footprints in the snow. When he opens the door a second time he is surprised to find Jatgeir outside. They talk for a little while, before Jatgeir hurriedly leaves. A little while later Elias walks into town and discovers that Jatgeir has died and was found floating in the sea near his boat. The body was found several hours earlier, but Jatgeir’s visit was only a few minutes before Elias heard of the death.
In part III we have Frank’s story. We hear about his first meeting with Eline, where she names him Frank rather than his real name of Olaf. She meets him one night in a restaurant in town and demands that he and his two fishermen friends all leave at once and sail back home to their own island. Everyone does as she asks. She moves in with Frank.
Frank fills in some of the gaps in the narrative. A few months after Jatgeir dies, Eline comes back to find Frank again and tell him to pack up and leave at once to live with her in Jatgeir’s old house in Vaim. There is as little explanation about this return as there was about her leaving Frank. It all has to happen immediately in Eline’s world.
By this stage Frank has his own boat, which is also named Eline.
Eline wants to be buried next to Jatgeir, she tells Frank. But Elias dies first, and since Jatgeir was his only friend, Elias is buried next to him.
When Eline dies, she has to be buried on the other side of Elias.
That is it.
Things that I noticed. Everyone seems to have a fake name. Jatgeir’s real name is just Geir. Eline’s real name is Josephine, and Frank’s real name is Olaf. I. think Elias is the only person without a different name. Eline is the oddest of the four characters in the book. Although she does not narrate a section, most things seem to revolve around the impact she has on other people. Here is a little extract about the use of names:
…the day Eline stood at our table, pretty drunk even though it was a weekday, and called me Frank, and wouldn’t stop, she had decided my name was Frank and so that was my name, nothing to discuss, I was Frank, and in all the years we eventually lived together she never once called me Olaf, only Frank, and I have to admit that it took me a long time to get used to being called Frank, as well as Olaf, to tell the truth I never really got used to it, and that wasn’t so strange since she was the only person who called me Frank, everyone else used my real name, Olaf, no more, no less, Olaf pure and simple, but actually it was fine to be called Frank too, I got used to it, so it was no wonder that people in Sund started calling me Frank-Olaf, or Olaf-Frank, and calling her Eline, Franka, or sometimes Frenka, or Frenke-Franka or Franke-Frenke, probably no one, yes, except me, ever called her Eline, and actually it was pretty rude that they never called her Eline, her real name, although actually her birth name was Josephine, she told me that once, privately, and that’s the name on her tombstone, so there aren’t many people, aside from a few so to speak initiates, yes, actually just a few people who came to her funeral, where the pastor used her real name, Jospehine, who know what Eline’s, or Frenka’s, or Franke-Frenka’s real name was, and even in Vaim they completely stopped calling her Eline, same as in Sund, or they called her Eline as long as she lived with Jatgeir, or the man called that, even though his real name was Geir, pure and simple…
And so it continues for some time.
This is apparently the first volume of the story and there are to be two more. I hope they improve a little, because while this was the same spare Fosse we know from earlier works, this is very thin on the ground.
December 22, 2025
Quite a seasonal book which feels wintery and spooky, Vaim is about a woman that touches the life of three men and the short novel is split into three parts, each told by one of the men. The second part was the best and had and very eerie and horror feel to it which I really loved. I would like to see Fosse write more stories with a creepy edge to them but he does seem to feel comfortable writing about snippets of the lives of every day people. I did enjoy Vaim but the first and last parts really paled in comparison to the middle one. His settings always really come to life though and it makes me miss Norway.
December 13, 2025
I’ve finally found a Fosse novel I didn’t like. Too little of the transcendental divinity anything he usually writes is steeped in. Alas.
Update:
I just read the far superior Elias in the New Yorker and wish it made it into Vaim being that it takes place in the same universe of the story. It’s far superior because it does that great Fosse thing where death is temporarily liminal for the person and their loved ones.
Update:
I just read the far superior Elias in the New Yorker and wish it made it into Vaim being that it takes place in the same universe of the story. It’s far superior because it does that great Fosse thing where death is temporarily liminal for the person and their loved ones.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 4, 2025
minimalist punch in the gut
September 11, 2025
Med Jon Fosse går ein inn med særs høge forventningar, og kjem ut imponert likevel.
December 30, 2025
Mi manchi da sempre
In Vaim Jon Fosse costruisce un romanzo in cui il luogo pesa più dei personaggi. Vaim non è uno sfondo ma una forza che trattiene, un destino da cui si può partire senza mai uscire davvero.
Eline, che se ne va e poi ritorna portando con sé uomini raggirati, non è tanto una figura psicologica quanto il veicolo attraverso cui il luogo si estende: non fugge da Vaim, lo porta nel mondo e lo riporta indietro.
La violenza del libro è silenziosa e passa soprattutto dal linguaggio. Frasi all’apparenza romantiche – come il “mi manchi da sempre” pronunciato da Jatzeir – rivelano un risvolto crudele: l’altro viene caricato di una mancanza che non gli appartiene. È un amore che non apre ma possiede.
A questa violenza delle parole si aggiunge quella del nome: Eline addirittura ribattezza uno dei suoi uomini. Rinominare significa appropriarsi, rendere l’altro intercambiabile, pronto a entrare in Vaim.
Mi è rimasto addosso un disagio secco: il gelo, la pesca, i silenzi, il mare scuro. Eline, la forza gravitazionale che attrae ma che porta nei fondali.
Vaim mi è parso un romanzo sulla permanenza e sul ritorno, sull’impossibilità di stare altrove davvero. Un libro spoglio e inquietante, in cui anche il linguaggio dell’amore diventa una forma di crudeltà.
In Vaim Jon Fosse costruisce un romanzo in cui il luogo pesa più dei personaggi. Vaim non è uno sfondo ma una forza che trattiene, un destino da cui si può partire senza mai uscire davvero.
Eline, che se ne va e poi ritorna portando con sé uomini raggirati, non è tanto una figura psicologica quanto il veicolo attraverso cui il luogo si estende: non fugge da Vaim, lo porta nel mondo e lo riporta indietro.
La violenza del libro è silenziosa e passa soprattutto dal linguaggio. Frasi all’apparenza romantiche – come il “mi manchi da sempre” pronunciato da Jatzeir – rivelano un risvolto crudele: l’altro viene caricato di una mancanza che non gli appartiene. È un amore che non apre ma possiede.
A questa violenza delle parole si aggiunge quella del nome: Eline addirittura ribattezza uno dei suoi uomini. Rinominare significa appropriarsi, rendere l’altro intercambiabile, pronto a entrare in Vaim.
Mi è rimasto addosso un disagio secco: il gelo, la pesca, i silenzi, il mare scuro. Eline, la forza gravitazionale che attrae ma che porta nei fondali.
Vaim mi è parso un romanzo sulla permanenza e sul ritorno, sull’impossibilità di stare altrove davvero. Un libro spoglio e inquietante, in cui anche il linguaggio dell’amore diventa una forma di crudeltà.
November 6, 2025
*3.5
forse una "unpopular opinion" visto che molti lo hanno amato, ma secondo me (anche per la brevità) resta un po' in superficie rispetto ad altri romanzi di Fosse.
Interessante il modo in cui convergono le tre parti, ma nel complesso non sono rimasta estasiata ecco.
forse una "unpopular opinion" visto che molti lo hanno amato, ma secondo me (anche per la brevità) resta un po' in superficie rispetto ad altri romanzi di Fosse.
Interessante il modo in cui convergono le tre parti, ma nel complesso non sono rimasta estasiata ecco.
September 14, 2025
Eline var ein djevel. Men det fortalde ho ikkje til nokon.
October 29, 2025
Definitivamente me gustó mucho. Más que “Escenas de una infancia” y “Hermana”. Es un libro muy interesante que nos habla del destino y las decisiones. Creo que esos son los principales temas. Está narrado a tres voces y nos cuentan la vida de una mujer que estuvo presente en todas. Es interesante porque nos describen versiones muy distintas de ésta y al final te quedas con la duda sobre el trasfondo.
Es una novela muy ágil y fluida que se lee muy rápido. Yo la leí en dos horas de corrido. No hay pierde con Fosse. No es tan profunda y simbólica como sus otras novelas, pero sin duda me gustó.
Es una novela muy ágil y fluida que se lee muy rápido. Yo la leí en dos horas de corrido. No hay pierde con Fosse. No es tan profunda y simbólica como sus otras novelas, pero sin duda me gustó.
September 17, 2025
Skikkelig fin. Så enkel, men samtidig vakker og trist. Tok litt tid å komme inn i romanspråket til Fosse igjen, men når jeg først var i flyten ville jeg ikke slutte å lese. Og del 2, ouf, rett i hjertet..
Anbefales!
Anbefales!
November 18, 2025
i did in fact abdicate goodreads for the humble pen and paper but i'm back only to say this blew my life up the past 2 days jon fosse is a genius everything is a doorway
— “all of it, good and bad, I think, yes, for sure and certain, it was probably for the best that I didn’t know what awaited me, strange as it was, yes, all was strange, I’ve thought that so many times, all was strange, yes, that’s what I hope they put on my tombstone, that’s how my life should be summed up, as they say, let it be with the words All was strange,”
— “all of it, good and bad, I think, yes, for sure and certain, it was probably for the best that I didn’t know what awaited me, strange as it was, yes, all was strange, I’ve thought that so many times, all was strange, yes, that’s what I hope they put on my tombstone, that’s how my life should be summed up, as they say, let it be with the words All was strange,”
September 6, 2025
Dette er Fosse og ikkje Fosse, på same tid 😄
September 28, 2025
Nei, vet dere hva, nå er jeg ferdig med Fosse. Jeg orker mere kommaer som vikarierer for punktum. Det blir alt for stakkato lesing uten pauser. Det hele forstyrrer innholdet og jeg føler meg lurt, akkurat som i keiserens nye klær. Etter å lest denne historien sitter jeg igjen med nesten ingenting, det var noen glimt innimellom, men det hele blir borte i gjentakelser og pesende stakkato tekst. Vel bekomme :-(
Når jeg leser og har lest en bok så ønsker jeg å sitte igjen med gode og tydelige bilder av personer, scener, omgivelser og, ikke minst følelser. Jeg ønsker å lese et språk som flyter og hvor jeg ikke behøver å anstrenge meg språklig, men la språket flyte og bære fortellingen slik at jeg sitter igjen med en god fortelling som har gitt meg noe, en opplevelse, intellektuelt eller noe lignende, ikke anpusten fordi teksten aldri hadde en slutt eller en pause - det er jo ikke for ingenting at vi har lært oss gode setningsoppbyginger !?
Når jeg leser og har lest en bok så ønsker jeg å sitte igjen med gode og tydelige bilder av personer, scener, omgivelser og, ikke minst følelser. Jeg ønsker å lese et språk som flyter og hvor jeg ikke behøver å anstrenge meg språklig, men la språket flyte og bære fortellingen slik at jeg sitter igjen med en god fortelling som har gitt meg noe, en opplevelse, intellektuelt eller noe lignende, ikke anpusten fordi teksten aldri hadde en slutt eller en pause - det er jo ikke for ingenting at vi har lært oss gode setningsoppbyginger !?
October 17, 2025
I’m not going to say a whole lot about Vaim, other than it is classic Fosse, but not as good as so much of his oeuvre, which remains beloved to me. It doesn’t come close to Septology, Aliss at the Fire, Melancholy 1 and 2, and Trilogy. I would compare it maybe with The Shining—short and hypnotic, but with less of the same pangs of grief and heartbreak that these other books left me with. I wonder how much the Nobel might set an expectation of transcendence on the reader? Does this change how we enter Fosse’s books? I’m not sure. But for me, this one is good, but slightly overhyped (I expect no different from Shadow Ticket and the exalted Schattenfroh, though I have not read these yet). Fosse is a genius, but this book, while good, does not stand up for me alongside his great novels and novellas.
December 27, 2025
Die Sprache Fosses ist auch in diesem neuen Buch, der Auftakt einer Trilogie, so einzigartig wie sonst. Punkte werden auch hier weggelassen.
Und trotzdem bleibt die Wirkung dieser Sprache, das ständige Wiederholen, das Ungenaue, das Verwirrende, das Mysteriöse, leider in diesem Werk aus. Es entsteht keine solch mystische Atmosphäre wie in seinen anderen Werken, deshalb auch nur 4 von 5 Sternen.
Dennoch selbstverständlich ein einzigartiges Leseerlebnis. Ich kann "Morgen und Abend" oder seine Heptalogie sehr empfehlen!
Und trotzdem bleibt die Wirkung dieser Sprache, das ständige Wiederholen, das Ungenaue, das Verwirrende, das Mysteriöse, leider in diesem Werk aus. Es entsteht keine solch mystische Atmosphäre wie in seinen anderen Werken, deshalb auch nur 4 von 5 Sternen.
Dennoch selbstverständlich ein einzigartiges Leseerlebnis. Ich kann "Morgen und Abend" oder seine Heptalogie sehr empfehlen!
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