translated from the Norwegian by Damian Searls – published September 2026
This is a razor-sharp meditation on a weird and sombre trip that verges towards horror.
It’s either much better than the first book in the trilogy, Vaim, or I am just appreciating Fosse’s writing more.
Other than being a companion to the first book, it doesn’t have much else in common except that it’s philosophical study in a constrained environment.
The hotel in question is a rather grand 40 room construction seemingly out of proportion to the business it attracts. The community seems desolate, perhaps one of depopulation, the likes of which I have myself visited many across Europe.
Fosse writes with a lack of clarity that enhances the atmosphere and adds to the sinister nature of the town and makes the reader desperate to know more.
The narrator has arrived to the town for reasons that are not only unclear to us, but to him as well. Not surprisingly, after a few days at the hotel he finds there is not much to do. He buys fishing equipment but ends up in an argument about who then owns it. He loses his wallet and car keys. His relationship with the landlady grows ever more strange.
I read from other reviewers who know Fosse’s work much better than I do, that it is his most bizarre and eerie work yet. I just hope that is the way his writing in the future heads. It’s fantastic.
My GoodReads score 5 / 5
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