Vaim is the first new novel published by Jon Fosse since winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2023. It is the first of three related novels, all set around the fictional town of Vaim in western Norway, with Vaim Hotel and Vaim Weekly still to come. Vaim was substantially written before the Nobel announcement, though completed after it.
The novel is written as a single sentence, though split over three parts, each told from a different perspective. In the first section we hear from Jatgeir, a slightly naïve character whose boat is named after his secret childhood crush, Eline. Gentle and inarticulate, he is lacking in confidence and easily ripped off when he tries of buy some black thread. Fosse’s depiction of him bears traces of the influence of Norwegian writer Tarjei Vesaas. Things get interesting when Eline herself arrives, carrying a suitcase, and sees her name on Jatgeir’s boat. Eline is confident, attractive and used to getting her own way. She is about to change Jatgeir’s life.
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In the second section it is many years later and we meet Elias, a former friend of Jatgeir. The friendship had elapsed not from estrangement but because of Eline’s jealousy. After hearing strange knocks on the door, Elias has a mysterious encounter. Here, Fosse explores his fascination with spiritual liminality to good effect, as he has done in A Shining and Morning and Evening. In the third part of the book Fosse rounds off the story neatly with the perspective of Frank, Eline’s cuckolded first husband.
Whereas Septology was profound and meditative, Vaim is more mysterious and playful. The translation by Damion Searls is, as ever, excellently judged in its rhythms and tones. The narrative has a folk tale quality about it. The characters are presented as types, perhaps representing different perspectives on fate. The male characters are passive and full of self-doubt – fate is something that happens to them. By contrast, the women are assertive and cunning, with Eline a forceful example of someone who knows how to carpe their own diem.
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A satisfyingly constructed story, Vaim shows Fosse shedding his heavy philosophical burdens (temporarily at least) to enjoy himself as a storyteller.
