The Colour of Blood
1987 political thriller by Brian Moore
978-0-224-02513-3
The Colour of Blood, published in 1987, is a political thriller by Northern Irish-Canadian novelist Brian Moore about Stephen Bem, a Cardinal in an unnamed East European country who is in conflict with the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy[1] and finds himself caught in the middle of an escalating revolution.
Description
Clancy Sigal, writing in The New York Times, described the novel as a study of faith under pressure: "Almost in thriller form, it is also a wise and illuminating meditation on the labyrinthine forces at work in a Roman Catholic Communist country like Poland (where Mr. Moore served with a United Nations relief group after the war)."[2]
According to critic Jo O'Donoghue, The Colour of Blood deals with the problem of how the modern Catholic Church "is to live in tandem with the secular authority".[3]
In her biography of Moore, Patricia Craig describes The Colour of Blood as a protest against intolerance, "with fanatical Catholicism presented as a destructive force. At the same time the Cardinal himself stands for another kind of Catholicism: moderate and incorruptible, and not unaccommodating of theological uncertainties".[4]
Awards
It won the Sunday Express Book of the Year award in 1987 and was also nominated for the Booker Prize.[5]
References
- ^ "Brian Moore, 1921–99: Cool prose craftsman". Socialism Today (36). March 1999.
- ^ Clancy Sigal (27 September 1987). "Cardinal Bem on the run". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
- ^ Jo O'Donoghue (1991). Brian Moore: a critical study. McGill-Queen's University Press. pp. 220. ISBN 0-7735-0850-3.
- ^ Patricia Craig (2002). Brian Moore: A Biography. Bloomsbury. p. 246. ISBN 0-7475-6844-8.
- ^ "The Colour of Blood". The Man Booker Prizes. Retrieved 1 August 2013.
External links
- Clancy Sigal. "Cardinal Bem on the run". The New York Times. 27 September 1987
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Works by Brian Moore
- Early fiction (1951–57)
- Judith Hearne (1955)
- The Feast of Lupercal (1957)
- The Luck of Ginger Coffey (1960)
- An Answer from Limbo (1962)
- The Emperor of Ice-Cream (1965)
- I Am Mary Dunne (1968)
- Fergus (1970)
- The Revolution Script (1971)
- Catholics (1972)
- The Great Victorian Collection (1975)
- The Doctor's Wife (1976)
- The Mangan Inheritance (1979)
- The Temptation of Eileen Hughes (1981)
- Cold Heaven (1983)
- Black Robe (1985)
- The Colour of Blood (1987)
- Lies of Silence (1990)
- No Other Life (1993)
- The Statement (1995)
- The Magician's Wife (1997)
- The Dear Departed: Selected Short Stories (2020)
- The Luck of Ginger Coffey (1964)
- Torn Curtain (1966)
- Catholics (TV film, 1973)
- The Blood of Others (1984)
- Control (Il giorno prima) (1987)
- The Temptation of Eileen Hughes (TV film, 1988)
- Black Robe (1991)
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