{"product_id":"saint-sebastians-abyss","title":"Saint Sebastian's Abyss","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"What I wanted more than anything was to be standing beside Schmidt, in concert with Schmidt, at the foot of \u003ci\u003eSaint Sebastian's Abyss\u003c\/i\u003e along with Schmidt, hands cupped to the sides of our faces, debating art, transcendence, and the glory of the apocalypse.\"\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFormer 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, \u003ci\u003eSaint Sebastian's Abyss\u003c\/i\u003e, 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, \u003ci\u003eSaint Sebastian's Abyss\u003c\/i\u003e stalks the museum halls of Europe, feverishly seeking salvation, annihilation, and the meaning of belief.","brand":"Coffee House Press","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":52317732896984,"sku":"9781566896368","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0833\/0369\/4552\/files\/imageloader_b248d257-eea8-42c9-9ac6-7c94577dd5ea.jpg?v=1787949802","url":"https:\/\/bigredbooks.shop\/products\/saint-sebastians-abyss","provider":"Big Red Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}