What To Read

This year’s Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to the prolific author and playwright Jon Fosse, "for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable." This morning in Stockholm, the Nobel committee bestowed the coveted medal to the 64-year-old Norwegian for "his immense oeuvre, written in Norwegian Nynorsk and spanning a variety of genres, consists of a wealth of plays, novels, poetry collections, essays, children’s books and translations. While he is today one of the most widely performed playwrights in the world, he has also become increasingly recognised for his prose."

While many insiders speculated that the Nobel committee would bestow its highest honor upon authors such as Can Xue or Margaret Atwood—or perennial favorites like Haruki Murakami or Salman Rushdie—the Nobel instead went to the writer often called "the new Henrik Ibsen."

Long known for his plays, which are especially popular in Europe, Fosse has indeed received increasing global attention for his works of prose, which include the seven part, one-sentence Septology that book critic Merve Emre described as “the closest I have come to feeling the presence of God here on earth."

In a prescient 2022 review, The New York Times declared, "Fosse is one of those writers you feel guilty you haven’t heard of already, or have vowed to read someday (probably some late October, after a major announcement from Stockholm)." Other notable books by the 2023 Nobel recipient include Morning and Evening, Melancholy and the forthcoming A Shining, due out later this month.

Works in English

 Note: As always, books from new Nobel laureates surge in demand, and they are often unavailable in the U.S. immediately after the announcement. Any books listed on Tertulia that are out of stock can be backordered.