There is something wrong with the Vaim Hotel, though The Guest cannot say what, nor why he has come to stay. Its only other occupant is Brita, who runs it with brisk authority and swears she has seen him somewhere before, though he is sure she hasn’t. As he acquaints himself with village life, eating each evening at the restaurant Brita also owns, The Guest begins to sense that Vaim is not like other places.
Then his belongings begin to slip away: fishing gear, shoulder bag, wallet, keys – each loss drawing him deeper into a debt he has no means to repay. With no way to settle his bill, he must accept that his short trip has become an indefinite stay. Discomfiting, propulsive and shot through with dark humour, Vaim Hotel is a striking new novel from Nobel Prize in Literature Jon Fosse, where everything is as it has always been, and nothing is as it seems.
