Jon Fosse, Morning and Evening
Dalkey Archive, 2015; Fitzcarraldo, 2024
Chapter 1 is a twenty-page childbirth scene, partly from the baby’s point of view. Chapter 2, eighty pages, is the last day in the life of the old man who was born in Chapter 1. Pow!
“Searls’s translation is delicate and rhythmic. Fosse is a great novelist of our time, and if you haven’t already discovered him for yourself, this short, sublime novel may be the perfect opportunity.”
— Rónán Hession, Irish Times
Essay on translating Fosse and Knausgaard: Pure Prose
An Irish Examiner Writer’s Pick Book of the Year:
“Hypnotic, hallucinatory, and utterly compelling.... Morning and Evening is a breathtaking read. Damion Searls deserves high praise for the remarkably readable translation, and it is a testament to his skill that he can replicate Fosse's stylistic ambition while still preserving the book’s larger sense of compression.... [Fosse] is undoubtedly one of the world’s most important and versatile literary voices, [and] with this short novel, he has created something special and important, an unforgettable reading experience, and one of the books of the year.” — Billy O’Callaghan
UK Publisher / Bookshop.org / Amazon (US edition, often unavailable)
Also an opera by Georg Haass, premiered at the Royal Opera House in London.
Other Fosse translations
Septology
A Shining
Aliss at the Fire
Melancholy I-II
Scenes from a Childhood (stories)
A Silent Language: The Nobel Lecture