Well this is like entering a whole new world, this is fiction that is structured in a way that you aren't used to reading. It reminded me a little bit of David Mitchell or Murakami, it is almost hypnotic. Immersive is the word I want I think.

It starts with the birth of a child who is named Johannes. There is a old man also named Johannes who dies, we spend our time with the older Johannes a man who has lived a quiet but purposeful life in a fishing village in Norway. We inhabit his world, his thoughts as he begins and ends his day. But this day doesn't feel like any other, things happen which are slightly off. As he walks on his early morning walk after he begins the day routines, he notices that things don't appear to be right. He has conversations with people which aren't right, he is somehow experiencing a kind of parallel world.

This book is a beautiful look at one man's life, his loves and hopes and experiences of the world. It is quiet and thoughtful. I adored it.

I listened to the audio of this book while I was sick with Covid and having lots of wild and crazy dreams. This book haunted me in those dreams, and I couldn't stop thinking about it. Beautifully read and moving in the extreme.

I was drawn to this audiobook because of the prestige that goes along with being Nobel-Prize winner Jon Fosse. I knew of his plays but had never read his prose, and this was a unique listening experience. This novella focuses on the life of Johannes, specifically the day of his birth and the day of his death. We are introduced to his character and learn about his life mainly through the stream-of-consciousness that accompanies his last day. We meet the people important to him and get a close up of one small life amidst an ocean of others. The mundane details in the life of an elderly man make the narrative touching and gives it a universal quality. The reader (or listener) is left to contemplate life’s first, and last, day and how they bookend all the days in between.

I really enjoyed the premise of this story, yet became a little distracted by the use of repetition, that may have been a necessary literary device but grew a little tiresome to the ears. Other than that, the voice of Kare Conradi leant depth and realism to what was at times a hallucinatory swirl of contemplation and conjecture.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the chance to listen to this unique story.

<i>Morning and Evening</i> is a story about the day a man named Johannes was born and the day he dies. The story starts with his dad’s thoughts as his mom is in labor and then takes over with Johannes’ thoughts. Through his thoughts and actions on the last day, you learn a bit about the life he has lived between these two days.

Fosse has a unique writing style that clearly works for him, given the international acclaim he has. However, I personally found the repetition he used annoying, such as sections where every sentence ended in “Johannes thinks”. It is definitely a story with a lot of layers, where can dive into the various meanings and literary devices used in the story. Despite its short length, it is a meaty story.

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an audio ARC of this book.

I was interested in reading Morning and Evening because Jon Fosse won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2023 and I had never heard of him. This was a really interesting novel - really not much happens, it's a very somber story starting with the day Johannes is born, from his father's POV and ending on the day of Johannes' death. Although there isn't much plot, the reader learns quite a bit about Johannes' life through this stream of consciousness story. It's a touching story that made me think a lot about how the small moments of our lives and relationships make up our story.
Thank you Dreamscape media and NetGalley for the audio ARC.

This beautiful novella was more lyrical and poetic than I was expecting. I listened to the audio version which was read by Kåre Conradi who had a lovely delivery as he spoke the words much more in the style of a poem, which was perfect for the text.

The first part deals with the birth of a new Johannes into the family with the narration from the expectant father.

The second half of the book deals with the death of old Johannes. It reads almost like a stream of consciousness with the repetition that continues throughout as Johannes senior comes to terms with his death.

Parts of it are quite disturbing as Johannes is unaware of what's happening to him but there is a really comforting side too as he meets his late wife and friend again. The friend has come to help him cross over and isn't that what we all want - someone to help us deal with death.

This is the first Fosse I've read and for a hypnotically comforting read I'd definitely recommend this short book.

Thankyou to Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for the audio advance review copy.

Morning and Evening is a beautifully translated novella that reflects on life and death through the lens of one man’s birth and final day. The narration of this collection was exceptional and an experience of its own. I’m not sure I would have been able to get through reading this (challenging structure and themes), but I did become fully enthralled while listening. If you’re in the mood for an emotional journey, and have a willingness to explore the nature of life itself, I’d highly recommend this as an audiobook.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for this audiobook for review purposes.

In the book morning and evening by John Fossey we meet Johannes his father fretting at the bedside of his laboring wife who is giving birth to Johannes then we follow Johannes to being an elderly father of three losing his old wife and eventually realizing his life is over. With Mundain statements Jon Fosse has written a mesmerizing book about one man’s life from birth to death. When I read the author won a Pulitzer Prize for literature I couldn’t resist reading this award winning book and I am so glad I did the author doesn’t keep you glued to the pages with twists and turns but with decisions that essentially everyone makes in their every day life with a narrator that really captures the tone of Johannes and his fulfilled life with children his wife work ET see this is a great book and well I definitely recommend it is a great literary fiction in this it sounds interesting to you trust me when I say you should read it it really is a fun way to pass a couple of hours. I want to thank dreamscape media for my free arc copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

Morning and Evening, the winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in literature from prolific Norwegian playwright/novelist/poet Jon Olav Fosse, is a dichotomy of a work. It about both a child named Johannes who is about to be born and an old man named Johannes who is dying.

The prose of this novel straddles a very delicate balance between beautiful, visceral poetic lyricism and the repetitive, nonsensical rambling of a toddler telling you a story you don’t entirely understand. Every paragraph feels artistically and deliberately crafted and yet equally frantic and cocaine fueled.

Unfortunately, it felt too scant to enjoy as much as I would have liked.

Thank you, NetGalley, for an advanced copy of this novel.

Format: audiobook ~ Narrator: Kåre Conradi
Content: 4.5 stars ~ Narration: 5 stars

Morning and Evening is a beautiful story of a man named Johannes, of young Johannes, just born and old, reminiscing about his life. These two are probably the same person (but we cannot be completely sure).

Fosse, with his sparse prose and simple everyday moments, tells the life story of Johannes. It's a quiet story, but yet so impactful.

I love Fosse's writing - it's sparse and poetic, and the use of repetition is surprisingly good. This novel, despite the writing, works wonderfully as an audiobook, too. The narrator, Kåre Conradi, did an excellent job reading this.

Thanks to Dreamscape Media for the advance copy and this opportunity! This is a voluntary review and all opinions are my own.

Absolutely beautiful, meandering prose expertly written and beautifully narrated. Morning and Evening is a wonderful audio adaptation of what will no doubt be a modern classic.

Perfect for those that love the journey more than the plot. This surreal novella follows a old man in the last moments of his life. I particularly liked the repetitive way Fosse write dialogue. The whole book was meditative, peaceful and, for a surreal book about passing over it felt really quite grounded.

This is a perfect rainy, Sunday afternoon listen! I gave it 5 stars!

Thankyou Netgalley for the ARC.

What a lovely book Jon Fosse has written. The translation was narrated by Kåre Conradi. He is a wonderful choice. He has a beautiful reading voice and read it like the poetic story that I'm sure it is. I believe the audio is a little over three hours.
I was hesitant to read this book as Nobel Prize winning literature is often a bit dense and heavy for me. This certainly was not.
It begins with the birth of Johannes from the POV of his father. His anxiety about the birth is so apparent as is his pride that he will have a son and that son will be fisherman like him. It moves to the second part when Johannes is an old man and dies.. We learn much of his life between these two events.
I have never read anything by Fosse before but I will certainly look for some of his books. Morning and Evening, though a small book, addressed big questions but mostly it was about love.

“Morning and Evening” – Jon Fosse (translated by Damion Searls, narrated by Kare Conradi)

Normally I’d put a quote here, but Fosse’s style and the fact that this is an audiobook make that a bit tricky. Still thanking @netgalley and @dreamscape_media for my copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

At a surface level, there isn’t much to this book – we are witness to a man’s first day on Earth, and we watch him on his final day, privy to glimpses of the life in between. The man, Johannes, has had a normal life, and it is Fosse’s talent to bring out a huge amount of poignancy through his meanderings on a seemingly normal day, though one where he can’t quite shake off growing unease and discomfort that something isn’t quite right.

I’m not sure if it was the style of the book, the constant repetition and flowing sentences with minimal punctuation, or my circumstances when I was listening to this (on a mountain hike) but I absolutely loved listening to this. The style became almost hypnotic in its beauty, the sonorous narration and flow washing over me, and I became very emotional by the end, fully immersed in Johannes’s life and that of those around him. I don’t know if I would have had the same feeling reading it, but for a relatively short book (less than 3 hours of audio), I was completely hooked, and it put me firmly on course to seek out more of Fosse’s work. I have Septology, but the sheer size of it is intimidating me…

If you haven’t read any Fosse yet, judging from this experience, I’d highly recommend him. I truly loved the experience of listening to this, and I really hope more people experience it. 5 star listen.

If you’ve read more Fosse, any recommendations as to what I should read next?

I was wondering whether or not Jon Fosse would work on audio and I am glad to report that it does. The endless meandering sentences flow very naturally, which you notice when reading but even more when listening.

This short work reminded me very much of 'A Shining' that I read earlier this year (and much less of Melancholy). Morning and Evening stand for birth and dead. In the opening scene Johannes is born and in the closing chapters he is an old man who wakes up, feeling disoriented, realising things are off. It is quite clear that he has died, but he does not realise it yet. Outside, his best friend, who died years earlier, is waiting for him.

I appreciated the consoling tone and found the way Fosse imagines the afterlife beautiful.

4.25⭐
I feel that sometimes when a book is translated from the original language, it can lose some of the emotion/meaning in the story. However, that is not the case with this book.
I really enjoyed listening to it. The narrator was fabulous and the story was beautiful.

A great introduction to Jon Fosse's lyrical repetition and themes, if you're thinking about reading from the newest
Nobel laureate.
I kept comparing pages of the original text to the audiobook, and I really enjoyed the translation.

Nobel Prize-winning authors are usually not my thing. Most of the time I can't fully appreciate the literary value of their work. This novel of Fosse's was an exception though.

I'm glad to have listened to the audiobook which took hardly three hours. Kare Conradi's narration is one of the reasons I enjoyed this more than I had expected. Both the writing style and the topic make this a challenging read, but with his narration Conradi interprets the story with great competence and care.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for an Advance Review Copy.

Morning and Evening written by Jon Fosse translated by Damion Searls and narrated by Kare Conradi was the Nobel Prize Winner for Literature in 2023 and was translated from teh original Norwegian in 2015

Kare Conradi has achieved what would seem an insurmountable task for a narrator and he does it with strong articulation, emotive vocalisation and downright talent. As a narrator, I canattest to how punctuation enables the script to be annotated much like a music score, but what to do when the author completely changes the rules and creates a new type of pace and lyricism? You make it work and Kare Conradi made it work and made it work to an epic level. I cannot even give this performance 5 stars as it supercedes that by far so I will just say I was left without words. Blinding

So if the narration is that good, what about the book? It is simply incredible, innovative but immersed deeply in tradition, an exploration of life and death from different perspectives, written with a high level of intensity due to the restructuring of punctuation and language and this is not about the translation, this is howit was written and the translation is perfection, retaining the depth of the narrative and not detracting from it

The book is written in two parts, life and death, birth to passing and it is absolutely incredible. Whether print or audiobook, this is a book that exemplifies the concept of reading as an experience and with leave you breathless and wondering what just hit you. Incredible

Thank you to Netgalley, Dreamscape Media, the author Jon Fosse, the translator Damian Searls and the narrator Kare Conradi for this mindblowing ALC. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own