Who is Jon Fosse the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature winner? What are his best works?

Jon Fosse, 64, the Norwegian dramatist and author, has written over forty plays, not to mention his extensive catalog of novels, poems, and other prose. Born in Haugesund, Norway, the author was in his native homeland when he received the call from the Nobel Committee that he had been awarded the prize. During the announcement, the Commitee said Fosse was chosen “for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable.”

What are some of Jon Fosse’s greatest works?

There are few authors alive today with the diverse gifts of Jon Fosse, who, with a pen, can move people with his plays, novels, poems, and even children’s books.

For the Nobel Committee, Fosse’s ‘Septology,’ a series of prose published between 2019 and 2021, is his “magnum opus.” The third text in the series made the shortlist of the International Booker Prize in 2022.

An earlier novel, ‘Melancholy,’ published in 1995 that received both the Melsom Prize and the Sunnmøre Prize, is also seen as a piece that showcased his talents as an author who was unafraid to lean into their own style.

However, for many, it is his work as a playwright that best demonstrates his talents. Fosse’s ‘Nokon kjem til å komme’ (in English: Someone Is Going to Come), was one of his works that put him on the map, particularly after the story was brought to life in Paris by Claude Régy in the 1999 rendition.