Jon Fosse
A Shining

A man is driving, without knowing where he’s going. He turns left and turns right, alternately, and finally enters a forest on road grooved with deep ruts. He doesn’t stop until the car gets stuck in the mud, unable to move forward or back. It starts snowing, gets dark and cold, but instead of going for help, the man walks down a path in the forest—even though it has already gotten so dark that he can hardly see a thing among the trees; even though he thinks this is a foolish thing to do.

“I’ve probably never done anything worse than this, get my car stuck and then go looking for help in the woods, how could I think I would find any help in the woods, deep in the dark woods, just because of an idea, no, it’s totally wrong to call it an idea, it was more like an impulse, something like that, something that just popped into my head. Foolishness, that’s what it was. Pure folly. Stupidity. Sheer stupidity.”

A Shining
(Kvitleik) is a brilliant novel about the border between life and death.

With A Shining, Jon Fosse has written a short masterpiece about death. A Shining is, simply put, great literature.

Marius Wulfsberg, Dagbladet

... a beautiful story about a man whose car gets stuck in the snow. ... you don’t read Fosse to decipher his symbols, but to be reminded of how wondrous our reality really is—beautiful and painful at once—and to take a step back, out of respect for the mystery.

Live Lundh, Morgenbladet

If you’re looking for winter reading one evening while the snow melts, A Shining is an excellent choice. You can feel the cold, see the snow, fear the coming darkness. Then discover something completely new in a second reading—a new image, a new association, even a bit of humor.

Gerd Elin Stana Sandve, Dagsavisen

Jon Fosse has already set the bar high for this year in Norwegian fiction. […] There is a lot of concentrated power and depth in this bouillon cube of a story. A Shining is like a concise echo of the masterpiece Septology.

Sindre Hovdenakk, VG

Jon Fosse

Jon Fosse
Agnete Brun

Jon Fosse is widely considered one of the world’s most important living writers. Born in 1959 in Strandebarm, a small village in the western part of Norway, he lives today in the Grotten, an honorary residence, as well as in Hainburg, Austria, and Frekhaug, Norway.

Fosse has received numerous prizes, both in Norway and internationally, and he is mentioned increasingly often as a likely contender for the Nobel Prize. He has currently finished a major seven-volume work of what he calls “slow prose”. Septology consists of three volumes: The Other Name: Septology I – II was published in 2019 to international praise and longlisted for the Booker International Prize. I Is Another: Septology III – V was published autumn 2020 and A New Name: Septology VI – VII in September 2021.

Rights sold to

Brazilian-Portuguese: Editora Fósforo
Danish: Batzer & Co
Dutch: Uitgeverij Oevers
World English: Fitzcarraldo editions
English NA/Canada: Transit Books
German: Rowohlt Verlag
Polish: ArtRage
Serbian: Treci Trg
Swedish: Bonniers förlag

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Edited September 18, 2023 by Winje Agency