Norwegian writer Jon Fosse wins the Nobel Prize in literature

By AP 5 October 2023, 2:41 pm

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Jon Fosse, author of shortlisted novel 'A New Name: Septology VI-VII,' poses ahead of the 2022 International Booker Prize ceremony in London, May 26, 2022. (AP Photo/David Cliff, File)

Norwegian writer Jon Fosse wins the Nobel Prize in literature, for plays and prose that “give voice to the unsayable,” according to the Swedish Academy.

One of his country’s most-performed dramatists, Fosse, 64, has written some 40 plays as well as novels, short stories, children’s books, poetry and essays.

Anders Olsson, chairman of the Nobel literature committee, says Fosse’s work is rooted “in the language and nature of his Norwegian background.”

Fosse is the fourth Norwegian writer to get the Nobel. Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson got it in 1903, Knut Hamsun was awarded it in 1920 and Sigrid Undset in 1928.

His work “A New Name: Septology VI-VII” — described by Olsson as Fosse’s “magnum opus” — was a finalist for the International Booker Prize in 2022.