Trilogien

Trilogien is a representative novel by the Norwegian writer Jon Fosse, winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature. It consists of three closely linked parts—Sleepless, Olav's Dream, and Weariness—and the Chinese edition, published by Century Wenjing, was translated directly from the original Norwegian by Li Shubo. The novel opens with a pair of seventeen-year-old lovers, Asle and Alida: Alida is pregnant, and the two wander the streets of Bjørgvin (Bergen) in late autumn with their scant belongings and a violin case that Asle regards as an heirloom, knocking on doors in search of lodging and being turned away again and again. They finally find shelter, have a son, Sigvald, and begin a new life under the names Olav and Asta. Yet someone recognizes Asle and knows full well the crime he once committed and never spoke of, and from there fate tightens step by step. The third part is narrated by Alida's daughter Alice, now an old woman, who sees her dead mother again and recalls her half-brother Sigvald, who vanished in childhood. The experiences of three generations overlap and converge within an inescapable fate. With long, circling sentences and very few adjectives, Fosse weaves biblical allusions, medieval Norwegian poetry, and mystical imagery into the story of this pair of lovers, creating a parable of love, guilt, and redemption. The book won the 2015 Nordic Council Literature Prize and is regarded as a model of Fosse's "slow prose."