The other day I stopped by the library. I was looking for a book. It had to be literary fiction, and it had to be small. It had been a while since I had read any fiction. I needed something that was simply about people who live and breathe—who just are. Not long, just a short book with real substance. Something lasting. Something with wisdom rather than knowledge. I am not quite sure how I ended up at Jon Fosse’s shelf. Maybe because I associate his name with stories that hold a lot, but in small, simple words. And there it was: Morning and Evening. It turned out to be something quite special.

Morning and Evening is the novel Jon Fosse received the Nobel Prize in Literature for in 2023. I will not give away too much of the plot, but it begins with a man who is about to become a father, and then, suddenly, it is about his son as an old man. What makes the book remarkable is how it depicts both the tiny everyday details alongside the largest, most eternal things: from crab fishing and slices of brown cheese to life, death, and the mystery of existence.

The supernatural slips in; it is simply there, as a natural part of reality. It lands, and it gives a timeless calm, a quiet intensity. It does not feel like fantasy, but like a deeper reality. The language is simple and flowing, and perspectives glide seamlessly between characters. Dialogue is free, without quotation marks or dashes—one thought, one line, flowing into the next, giving rhythm, overview, and insight into the people in this fine story. It was exactly the book I needed.