Pure Colour

A new novel about art, love, death, and time from the author of Motherhood and How Should a Person Be?

Here we are, just living in the first draft of creation, which was made by some great artist, who is now getting ready to tear it apart.

In this first draft, a woman named Mira leaves home for school. There, she meets Annie, whose tremendous power opens Mira’s chest like a portal—to what, she doesn’t know. When Mira is older, her beloved father dies, and she enters the strange and dizzying dimension that true loss opens up.

Pure Colour tells the story of a life, from beginning to end. It is a galaxy of a novel: explosive, celestially bright, huge, and streaked with beauty. It is a contemporary bible, an atlas of feeling, and a shape-shifting epic. Sheila Heti is a philosopher of modern experience, and she has reimagined what a book can hold.

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Published Apr 25, 2023

224 pages

Average rating: 5.65

51 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

ediehas
Feb 28, 2025
6/10 stars
this book was such a weird little gem. tough to rate though, it didn't really follow a structure, which partially i liked and partially felt confused by. was less engaged in the beginning but the second half was excellent. really beautiful conversations (or really non-conversations) on philosophizing about life and death and do we even matter and of course we do and of course we don't. 3 stars doesn't really represent my feelings as i would def recommend this read. will be thinking about this one for while.
spookyreading
May 25, 2023
10/10 stars
God is an artist standing before a canvas. People are either fish, bears, or birds. The quest for love and spirit and comfort in life is unclear, even to God. Love hurts, and is required.

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