Pure Colour

Media typePages224AwardGovernor General’s Literary AwardISBN9780735282452WebsitePenguin Random House Canada

Pure Colour is a novel by Canadian author Sheila Heti. Published by Knopf Canada, the book won the 2022 Governor General's Literary Award for English-language fiction.

Synopsis

Pure Colour is a novel about art, love, death, and time from beginning to end. Heti tells the story of a girl named Mira, her relationship with her father and how she deals with his death, and her love for Annie, who she meets while studying to become an art critic.

Awards

Pure Colour won the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction at the 2022 Governor General's Awards,^[1] the Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature for fiction, and was long-listed for the 2022 Giller Prize.^[2]

Year	Work	Prize	Result	Ref
2022	Pure Colour	Folio Prize for fiction	Shortlisted	[3]
		Giller Prize	Longlisted	[4]
		Governor General's Award for English-language fiction	Won	[5]
2023	Pure Colour	vine awards for canadian jewish literature for fiction	Won	[6]

Reception

Pure Colour was generally well received in Canada and the United States. Dwight Garner, journalist for The New York Times writes, “Just like that, there’s magic", and "Heti owns a sharp axe. In Pure Colour the wood chips that fall are as interesting as the sculpture that gets made.”^[7] At The New Yorker, American journalist and author Douglas Preston adds "This book, so full of argument, feels weightless. I note this with wonder. . . Heti’s books aim to be vessels for the transformation of reader and writer.”^[8] In The Globe and Mail, Nicole Thompson from The Canadian Press calls the novel "a strange and meditative book".^[9]

References