Ashes and Snow: A Novel in Letters

by Gregory Colbert

Ashes and Snow, a lifelong project for artist and author Gregory Colbert, originated sixteen years ago as a literary endeavor that soon inspired photographic artworks and an accompanying film. Colbert, like the character in the novel, composed the letters on many journeys to such places as India, Burma, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Dominica, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tonga, and Namibia. The novel echoes many of the themes expressed in Colbert's images. Provocative, contemplative, and passionate, the letters chronicle an inward and outward exploration of memory and love. (The book collects 74 of these letters, as some were blown from the window or lost in transit. Blank pages in the novel sometimes represent the missing letters.)

Printed and bound in Italy on deckle edge Velata Biblos paper from Cartiere Magnani; hand-sewn binding; cover from handmade Nepalese paper sealed with natural beeswax; tied with thread stained with hibiscus tealeaves. Text in English.

180 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Gregory Colbert is a Canadian film-maker and photographer best known as the creator of Ashes and Snow, an exhibition of photographic artworks and films housed in the Nomadic Museum.

Reviews

[Ricky Barnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this book felt like listening to the voice of my own soul as I'd never heard it before. I have always seen myself as the eternal traveler, as a man of personal letters and, of course, as one learning to love more deeply. So too, the character of Gregory's wonderful book is a traveler, a wanderer, a lover, a great storyteller, and a man of personal letters. This story, told in a selection from 365 letters relates the spiritual journey and growth of the traveler and his last wishes after his death. Bound to appear as an aged and worn journal, this book is as genuinely life-changing as any book ever characterized as such.

[Catherine]

Comment dire ça ce qui se dit pas.

[Juliana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of rather redundant symbolism. The physical presentation of the book is pretty cool.