“What I wanted more than anything was to be standing beside Schmidt, in concert with Schmidt, at the foot of Saint Sebastian’s Abyss along with Schmidt, hands cupped to the sides of our faces, debating art, transcendence, and the glory of the apocalypse.”
Former best friends who built their careers writing about a single work of art meet after a decades-long falling-out. One of them, called to the other’s deathbed for unknown reasons by a “relatively short” nine-page email, spends his flight to Berlin reflecting on Dutch Renaissance painter Count Hugo Beckenbauer and his masterpiece, Saint Sebastian’s Abyss, the work that established both men as important art critics and also destroyed their relationship. A darkly comic meditation on art, obsession, and the enigmatic power of friendship, Saint Sebastian’s Abyss stalks the museum halls of Europe, feverishly seeking salvation, annihilation, and the meaning of belief.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Former best friends who built their careers writing about a single work of art meet after a decades-long falling-out. One of them, called to the other’s deathbed for unknown reasons by a “relatively short” nine-page email, spends his flight to Berlin reflecting on Dutch Renaissance painter Count Hugo Beckenbauer and his masterpiece, Saint Sebastian’s Abyss, the work that established both men as important art critics and also destroyed their relationship. A darkly comic meditation on art, obsession, and the enigmatic power of friendship, Saint Sebastian’s Abyss stalks the museum halls of Europe, feverishly seeking salvation, annihilation, and the meaning of belief.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"I loved everything about Saint Sebastian's Abyss. A fantastic tale of the glories and tribulations of chasing an ecstatic relationship to art." - Matt Bell
"What a wonderful, short shock of a novel this is. A superb exploration of friendship and enmity through a single painting of a long-dead and exquisitely imagined artist. An amazing meditation on life, loss, meaning, and suffocation. Funny, dark, strange, gothic, and beautiful--an extraordinary journey through three broken lives." - Edward Carey
"In Saint Sebastian's Abyss, we are swept away by the hilarious and misguided preoccupations of two compulsive pedants, a comedy duo, whose misadventures are as irresistible as they are outrageous." - Rikki Ducornet
"Evocative of the work of Thomas Bernhard, Laszlo Krasznahorkai, Gilbert Sorrentino, and other great literary obsessives of a satirical stripe, Saint Sebastian's Abyss by Mark Haber is whip smart, scalpel sharp, wicked funny, and, ultimately, genuinely moving. Fans of Haber's excellent Reinhardt's Garden are in for a serious treat with this one. I loved it and can't wait to see what comes next." - Laird Hunt
"There is a refreshing lightsomeness to the writing in Mark Haber's new novel about art and the absurdity of academic life. The mix of love and hostility exchanged between the two art critics in this novel is both endearing and ridiculous at once. Their territorial battles over the same work of art, their willingness to upend their marriages and much of their lives over a single painting, made me laugh aloud with recognition. An absolute delight, and Haber's love of writing comes through on every page." - Idra Novey
"What a wonderful, short shock of a novel this is. A superb exploration of friendship and enmity through a single painting of a long-dead and exquisitely imagined artist. An amazing meditation on life, loss, meaning, and suffocation. Funny, dark, strange, gothic, and beautiful--an extraordinary journey through three broken lives." - Edward Carey
"In Saint Sebastian's Abyss, we are swept away by the hilarious and misguided preoccupations of two compulsive pedants, a comedy duo, whose misadventures are as irresistible as they are outrageous." - Rikki Ducornet
"Evocative of the work of Thomas Bernhard, Laszlo Krasznahorkai, Gilbert Sorrentino, and other great literary obsessives of a satirical stripe, Saint Sebastian's Abyss by Mark Haber is whip smart, scalpel sharp, wicked funny, and, ultimately, genuinely moving. Fans of Haber's excellent Reinhardt's Garden are in for a serious treat with this one. I loved it and can't wait to see what comes next." - Laird Hunt
"There is a refreshing lightsomeness to the writing in Mark Haber's new novel about art and the absurdity of academic life. The mix of love and hostility exchanged between the two art critics in this novel is both endearing and ridiculous at once. Their territorial battles over the same work of art, their willingness to upend their marriages and much of their lives over a single painting, made me laugh aloud with recognition. An absolute delight, and Haber's love of writing comes through on every page." - Idra Novey
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