Aliss at the fire

de Jon Fosse

Slim, mournful tale of loss and memory in a coastal Norwegian town, first published in Norway in 2003. The novel opens with a series of shifts in perspective, time and identity that hint at the experimentation that follows. We immediately meet Signe, an aging woman living alone near a fjord. The story is set in 2002, but Signe is soon thinking back to 1979 and the day her husband, Asle, died while boating in the waters.