that there’s been some catastrophe that can’t be located, and that one is living in the aftermath of that catastrophe.’’ Gee recalls: “Someone said that wherever Sebald went he found rabbit holes into the horrors of history. I guess that’s what it was for me, realizing you could go into this landscape and find all these rabbit holes.”

Much like Virginia Woolf, an influential presence for Sebald, his melancholia is interspersed with a rare delight as he patchworks his recollections, drafts a consciousness of navigation. The experience of reading the book, too, is a continual gathering of bearings, a back and forth that seemingly transcends the linearity of its pages.

Patience (After Sebald) will be screening at Film Forum from May 9.