Septology

An elderly Norwegian painter named Asle contemplates his life, his work, his faith, and a near-double who shares his name and his alcoholism. Written in a single unbroken sentence across seven volumes, Septology is one of the most ambitious works of contemporary European literature.

Why Start Here

The formal experiment is inseparable from the content. Fosse’s long, flowing sentence, which circles back on itself, repeats phrases with slight variations, and moves between past and present without punctuating the transition, enacts the way consciousness actually works. Memory doesn’t stop and start; it flows.

The book is about an artist in old age, looking back and praying forward, trying to understand what his paintings have been about and who the other Asle is. Faith, Catholic, questioning, sincere, is central. So is the Norwegian coast: its light, its silence, its specific quality of loneliness that is not quite loneliness.

What to Expect

Demanding but deeply rewarding. The repetition is not tedium once you surrender to it, it becomes a kind of meditation. Read slowly. The complete edition is available in three volumes; starting with the first is sufficient to understand whether this is for you.