Heartbreaking, exciting, profound- a short epic that reimagines what the novel can do
'Beautiful and impossible to put down. Sheila Heti is a genius.' Avni Doshi
'This one-of-a-kind novel... feels nothing less than vital.' Observer
'Pure Colour is an original, a book that says something new for our difficult times.' Anne Enright, Guardian
'A treat to read.' Stylist
*A Guardian, Financial Times, New Statesman, Daily Mail, AnOther and Cosmopolitan Books for 2022 pick*
What if this world is just a first draft, made by some great artist in order to be destroyed?
In this first draft, a woman named Mira leaves home to study. 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 that 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.