Damion Searls Books in Order

Recommended Reading Paths: Where to Start?

Damion Searls is a unique figure in modern letters, celebrated both for his original non-fiction, fiction, and poetry, and for his monumental translations of European literary giants. Because his bibliography spans these two distinct paths, your starting point depends entirely on what you want to read:

• For Psychology and Narrative History: Start with The Inkblots (2017). This is Searls's breakout work of non-fiction, providing the first definitive English-language biography of Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach alongside a rich cultural history of the famous inkblot test.
• For Short Fiction and Literary Homages: Start with What We Were Doing and Where We Were Going (2009). This collection of five stories plays with and updates the styles and structures of classic authors like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Vladimir Nabokov.
• For Modern Fiction: Dive into his novel Analog Days (2025), which explores Gen-X nostalgia, memories, and the political atmosphere of 2016.
• For Translation Theory and Art: Start with The Philosophy of Translation (2024), a meditation on translation as an act of creation and its philosophical significance.
• For Nobel-Prize Winning Prose: Begin with Jon Fosse's Septology (translated by Searls), starting with the first volume, The Other Name: Septology I-II (2019).

Original Authored Works in Publication Order

If you prefer to read Searls's original authored works in the order they were written and published, follow this timeline:

1. Everything You Say Is True: A Travelogue (2003) – A personal travel memoir detailing his experiences wandering across six different countries.
2. What We Were Doing and Where We Were Going (2009) – A collection of short stories that pays homage to literary masters.
3. The Inkblots: Hermann Rorschach, His Iconic Test, and the Power of Seeing (2017) – A biography and cultural history of the Rorschach test.
4. The Philosophy of Translation (2024) – An essayistic and theoretical exploration of translation as an art.
5. The Mariner's Mirror (2025) – A poetry chapbook.
6. Analog Days (2025) – A novel focusing on nostalgia and memory in 2016.

The Jon Fosse Translations: Reading Order Guidance

Searls is famous for learning Norwegian specifically to translate the work of Jon Fosse, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2023. For readers wanting to tackle these hypnotic, stream-of-consciousness works, order is crucial. Here is the recommended sequence:

1. The Septology Trilogy

Fosse's magnum opus is a single continuous narrative published in three volumes (often collected as a single book in the US). They must be read in sequence:

• The Other Name: Septology I-II (2019)
• I Is Another: Septology III-V (2020)
• A New Name: Septology VI-VII (2021)

2. Standalone Novels & Companion Pieces

Once you finish Septology, you can read Fosse's other works translated by Searls in any order, though reading them in order of their translation provides a great look at their stylistic development:

• Melancholy I-II (co-translated with Grethe Kvernes) – A fictionalized look at the life of Norwegian painter Lars Hertervig.
• Aliss at the Fire – A brief, haunting story of family history and grief.
• Morning and Evening – A beautiful, short novel tracing the beginning and the end of a fisherman's life.
• Scenes from a Childhood – A collection of short stories and prose pieces.
• A Shining – A surreal, dreamlike novella about a man lost in a forest.

Uwe Johnson's Anniversaries

Another monumental translation achievement by Searls is Uwe Johnson's Anniversaries: From the Life of Gesine Cresspahl. Originally published in German as four volumes between 1970 and 1983, Searls's complete English translation was published in 2018 as a two-volume boxed set by NYRB Classics. It is designed to be read sequentially from Volume 1 to Volume 2, following Gesine Cresspahl's daily reflections in New York City alongside the history of her family in Germany.

What to Know Before You Start

Searls's translation philosophy, detailed in his book The Philosophy of Translation, emphasizes capturing the music and rhythm of the original text. When reading his translations of Jon Fosse, be prepared for a lack of traditional punctuation and repetitive, chanting prose. Reading them slowly and letting the rhythm wash over you is the best way to enjoy Fosse's unique style.