Aliss at the Fire

In her old house by the fjord, Signe lies on a bench and sees a vision of herselfas she was more than twenty years earlier: standing by the window waiting forher husband Asle, on that terrible late November day when he took his rowboatout onto the water and never returned. Her memories widen out to include theirwhole life together, and beyond: the bonds of one family and their battles withimplacable nature stretching back over five generations, to Asle’s great-great-grandmother Aliss. In Jon Fosse’s vivid, hallucinatory prose, all these moments intime inhabit the same space, and the ghosts of the past collide with those whostill live on. Aliss at the Fire is a haunting exploration of love, ranking among thegreatest meditations on marriage and loss.