The Other Name

Septology I-II

By: Jon Fosse, Damion Searls - translator

Narrated by: Kyle Snyder

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.

©2019 Jon Fosse; Translation copyright 2019 by Damion Searls (P)2022 Tantor

Remarkable and New

Unlike anything else I have ever read. To some degree it reminds me of Joseph Conrad and Henry James in its quest to penetrate human psychology, but it’s something completely different something from the 21st-century. 

Wonderful!

This is a stunning story and production. I am blown away by the craftsmanship on so many levels. Bravo to author and narrator!

A new and mesmerizing writing style.

Wonderful river of a novel! Nothing like anything you have ever read before. It grabs you and holds you tight.

Clear and simple

Flows and made me feel good. Unique in its style. Looking forward to reading the other books in the collection.

Like a song, long, but mesmerizing song

It took me a while to warm up to the style of The Other Name, the first 2 volumes of Jon Fossés Septology. But it grew on me like a song that evokes complex emotions and imagery, the more we listen to it. The prose seems too simple and repetitive at first, but soon, we live in the author’s mind where time travel seems possible and many potential futures can be contemplated. A simple painting with two lines becomes in turn the passionate embrace of 2 soulmates or throw us in a profound existential reflection on the nature of the divine and the meaning of life. The repetitions act as the chorus that delineates the verses. I listened to all 7 volumes in a few days, with as much enthusiasm.

Thought provoking and hypnotic

Septology is a fascinating float along life’s journey as the soul of another. I found it utterly and in some ways inexplicably engrossing.

Excellent book in need of a re-record

Fosse’s book is sublime. Snyders recording has potential, but it also has flaws (fixable ones) so glaring that this audiobook was hard to get through, even as the book itself was becoming one of my favorites ever. For an inexplicable reason, Snyder delivers all non-narrator lines in caricatural voices, coming off with a slapstick tone irreconcilable with the work of art he is reading. His normal reading voice is excellent; he should simply deliver all the words, dialogue included, uniformly in his own voice. Second, for a work whose most poignant and significant moments are rendered in Latin, Snyder needs to put forth at least some effort to pronounce the Latin intelligibly. Among all languages, Latin’s pronunciation rules are the very simplest (besides, maybe, Hawaiian). It would take him no time at all to learn them, and to patch up these small segments of an otherwise perfectly serviceable reading.

better to read not listen

It is already hard to follow, but the reader uses a timing and tone for the "I think" repeats, which are in the thousands, that are halting instead of engaging. The author likes repeating things, but the reader puts too much emphasis on this phrase. I am deleting this book.

Ear worms galore

Terrible book as audio. Too much repetition. The word “think” must comprise half the words in it. Reader read fast over parts that weren’t repetition and seemed to emphasize THINK. Waste of a credit.

I listened to the end. And gave it my best shot. B

While listening to it, I had my suspicions. And then an hour until the end of the book. I knew. What was happening?