A Shining

2023 National Book Award Finalist

Nobel Prize-winning plumber of the ontological Jon Fosse lands among our finalists with A Shining, translated by Damion Searls. 

Wisp-thin & redolent of the divine, this compact end-of-the-road novel finds its stranded motorist narrator stumbling through a dark & snowy wood. In typical Fosse fashion, this pinhole of a plot gives way to an exploration of life, death, & human nature that’s as expansive as the firmament above. 

A man starts driving without knowing where he is going. He alternates between turning right & left, & finally he gets stuck at the end of a forest road. Soon it gets dark & starts to snow, but instead of going back to find help, he ventures, foolishly, into the dark forest. Inevitably, the man gets lost, and as he grows cold & tired, he encounters a glowing being amid the obscurity. Strange, haunting & dreamlike, A Shining is the latest work of fiction by Jon Fosse, ‘the Beckett of the 21st century’ (Le Monde).

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Born in 1959 in Strandebarm, in Vestland, western Norway, Jon Fosse’s remarkably prolific career began in 1983 with his first novel, Red, Black, & since then he has published numerous novels, stories, books of poetry, children’s books, & essay collections. He began writing plays in 1993, with Someone Is Going to Come, & since then he has written almost 30 plays, including A Summer’s Day, Dream of Autumn, Death Variations, Sleep, & I Am the Wind.  

Since the mid-90s his plays have had unparalleled international success, being performed over a thousand times all over the world. Today Fosse is one of the most performed living playwrights, but he has continued to write novels, stories, & poetry of exceptional quality. 

Fosse has been awarded numerous prizes both in Norway & abroad, & in recent years he has won the Nobel Prize in Literature.