Jon Olav Fosse, Norwegian author wins 2023 Nobel Prize for Literature

Jon Olav Fosse, a Norwegian author and master of spare Nordic prose, has won the 2023 Nobel Prize for Literature.

The Prize was awarded to him “for writing that gives voice to the unsayable.” Fosse is also said to be “the author of formidable corpus of work ranging from poetry, plays to novels and children’s books.

Jon Olav Fosse was born in 1959 on the west coast of Norway to a family which followed a strict form of Lutheranism.

He married three times and produced six children. Fosse gave up alcohol after being treated in hospital for alcohol poisoning.

He began writing stories as a child, with his breakthrough novel, “Boathouse”, published in 1989.

Having established himself as a novelist, poet and children’s author, Fosse turned his attention to plays.

After a 10-year hiatus, he returned with a new piece for the theatre entitled “Sterk Vind” (Strong Wind).

He is known and revered for his revelatory use of form, simple language and silence.

“Namnet”, which was first staged in 1995 remains one of his most performed works.

Fosse was nominated for the Booker Prize, won the Ibsen Prize and was awarded the French Order of Merit in 2007.

The complex machinery of portrait painting
His latest book, “Septology”, a semi-autobiographical magnum opus, is in seven parts spread across three volumes. It runs to 1,250 pages without a single full stop.