A companion to "Luminous Debris", this title offers readings of late Roman and early Christian ruins in the author's adopted region of Provence, sifting through iconographic, architectural, and sacramental vestiges to shed light on nothing less than the existential itself.
"In Ladder of Shadows, Gustaf Sobin is 'always in search of the kind of phenomena that might, potentially, confer sense upon one's own existence.' In the course of this search, Sobin's essays enact a lovely and compelling labor of making the past present, while also making the present unfold and open itself to history."-Joshua Clover, author of The Totality for Kids
"Gustaf Sobin's Ladder of Shadows is to Provençal consciousness what his perfect sensorium of poetry is to a rose and the sound of a river. Sobin's writing is a gift that we never learn to expect; it always surprises."-Michael McClure, poet and playwright
"I feel as though I just walked across southern France from 27 B.C. to A.D. 1200 accompanied by a really smart, articulate, and avid local insider. Along the way he introduced me to monks, potters, stonemasons, architects, glassblowers, farmers still using late Neolithic methods, woodcutters, and salt dryers. Perhaps the reader should be warned not to open the book unless there are several days of free time available. It is almost impossible to put it down."-Dean MacCannell, author of The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class
