Astonishing Splashes of Colour - Softcover

Morrall, Clare

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060734469 ISBN 13: 9780060734466

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2005

Synopsis

Taking its title from a description of Peter Pan's Neverland, Astonishing Splashes of Colour follows the life of Kitty, a woman who, in a sense, has never grown up. As her moods swing dramatically from high to low, they are illuminated by an unusual ability to interpret people and emotions through colour.

Kitty struggles to come to terms with her life, including the loss of her mother, a miscarriage, and an unconventional marriage to her husband, who lives in the apartment next door. And when her father and brothers reveal a family secret long hidden, it overwhelms Kitty's tenuous hold on reality and propels her on an impetuous journey to the brink of madness.

This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

About this title

From the Publisher:

2003 Man Booker Prize Shortlist Selection

From the Inside Flap:

?When is the right time to tell someone they?re not who they think they are?? Caught in an over-vivid world as a result of synaesthesia (a condition in which emotions are seen as colours), Kitty Wellington is tipped off-centre by the loss of a child. And as children all around become emblems of hope and longing and grief, she?s made shockingly aware of the real reasons for her pervasive sense of her own ?non-existence.?

What mystery at the heart of Kitty?s family makes her four older brothers so vague about her mother?s life? And why does her artist father splash paint on canvas rather than answer his daughter?s questions? On the edges of her dreams, Kitty glimpses the kaleidoscope hippie van that took her sister Dinah away and wonders how this event may link to the dim corridors of her own childhood, a childhood in which she had no tangible sense of her mother.

This compelling novel is threaded through with a dark humour and resonates with universal truths as it tells of identity struggles in a large family, the sadness of lost children, the approach of breakdown and desperation ? and the optimism of an eccentric, loving marriage. Skilful, unsentimental, fresh, and original, Astonishing Splashes of Colour is a sparkling debut by a writer of exceptional talent.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0060734469
• ISBN 13: 9780060734466
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352