Ratings1
Average rating3
“...propulsive and compelling...a gripping [story].” — New York Times Book Review “Beautifully subtle. . . . It draws the reader in page after page.” — Boston Globe “Astonishing Splashes of Colours is a brave and startling book, tinted, shaded and stained like life itself.” — Philadelphia Inquirer “This finely constructed novel, Booker Prize (shortlist), should please readers of both popular and literary fiction.” — Library Journal (starred review) “Wellington, a memorable heroine, narrates “Astonishing Splashes of Color,” a terrific debut novel by British writer Clare Morrall.” — Buffalo News “An extraordinary, gripping novel written with no sentimentality. A wonderful piece of writing” — Professor John Carey, Chair of the Man Booker Prize “A heart-breaking and accomplished debut.” — Bookseller (London) “An extremely good first novel: deceptively simple, subtly observed, with a plot that drags you forward like a strong current.” — Daily Mail (London) “A moving novel about loss, and particularly lost children” — The Guardian (UK) “A core of truth, suffused with a golden glow, becoming more pleasurable the more [it] wander[s].” — San Francisco Chronicle “Equally dangerous and endearing, ASTONISHING SPLASHES OF COLOUR is a poignant tour through the many moods of loss.” — Laurie Fox, author of The Lost Girls “Astonishing Splashes of Color commands us from the first page...” — Jacquelyn Mitchard “This finely constructed novel, Booker Prize (shortlist), should please readers of both popular and literary fiction.” — Library Journal “An inprobably uplifting novel about depression and its sources.” — Independent (UK) “Absorbing and sure-footed first novel...extremely well written and cimpulsively readable...a genuinely solid and satisfying work of fiction.” — Sunday Times (London)
Reviews with the most likes.
A beautiful cover...an intriguing
title...an interesting blurb on the back of the book....I've learned
that all of these can promote excessive expectations and lead to a
dire case of book disappointment. Sometimes I think I'd rather know
too little about a book and thus come to expect little.
I had high expectations for this book. If you go into reading it
without expecting “astonishing splashes of colour”, if you begin
reading, thinking, perhaps, “nice and interesting splashes”, I think
you might rate the book higher than I did when you finish. What I
liked best about this novel were the characters and the relationships
between them. It was a psychological study rather than a true plot
driven novel; I like that, too. It didn't sweep me away, but I was
happy to have read the book.