Lesser Ruins

From the author of Reinhardt’s Garden and Saint Sebastian’s Abyss, comes a gripping new novel exploring obsessive yearning and creative turmoil.

Grieving the recent death of his wife, a retired professor has thrown himself back into his life’s work—a monumental book dedicated to Michel de Montaigne, reinterpreting the founder of the essay for contemporary readers. But his quest is constantly interrupted by both external distractions and internal conflicts—haunting memories, the buzz of smartphones, and his son’s insistent pursuit of an electronic dance album.

As the professor rifling through the clutter of his desk, his mind swirls, muddied by caffeine-fueled delirium. The past spills onto the pages, populated with ghosts and frustrations. From the community college where he felt unfulfilled to an artist colony in the Berkshires, his recollections tug at the edges of his being—where encounters with sculptors, poets, painters, and thinkers form a tapestry of obsession, all trying to break free from their limitations.

Darkly humorous yet profoundly absurd, Lesser Ruins is a sweeping meditation on ambition, loss, and the maddening, yet fervent, search for purpose through art.