The Painter in Space Hurls Himself into the Void, photo of Yves Klein by Harry Shunk, 1960
Blue Postcards by Douglas Bruton is the Book Beat May reading group selection. Our meeting will be held at the bookstore and on Zoom Wednesday, May 27 at 7 PM. Books are now in stock and discounted 15%.
Blue Postcards by Douglas Bruton is a 2021 novella structured as 500 numbered paragraphs, each resembling a postcard, that weaves together three interconnected narratives centered around the color blue, memory, and loss in Paris. The stories follow Henri, a Jewish tailor who sews a hidden blue thread into his suits; the real-life artist Yves Klein, famous for his monochrome paintings; and a modern-day narrator who collects blue postcards, connecting the past and present through the color. The book explores themes of truth, lies, and the nature of art and memory, using the color blue as a unifying motif.
Longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction in 2021.
Set in Paris, this atmospheric tale delicately intertwines three connected narratives and timelines, interspersed with observations of the colour blue. It is a meditation on truth and lies, memory and time and thought. It is a leap of the imagination, a leap into the void.
“It is a story, unlike our ability to see colour, that haunts and intensifies rather than diminishes with time.”
–Carmen Marcus, author of How Saints Die
“It was rather a delight to read Blue Postcards. It is an ingenious book, and I think it will linger with me for quite some time. . . . I will re-read it, because as well as being clever it is kind.”
–Scotsman
“Time in this novel is fluid; the story is told in every character’s present — yet the present is not fixed. The narrator speaks sometimes with the voice of his older self and at other times with that of his youth. The trickster hints that the memories may not be memories but imagination.”
—Necessary Fiction
Douglas Bruton is the author of Blue Postcards (2021), With or Without Angels (2022) and Woman in Blue (2025).
Born in Edinburgh, Douglas spent most of his working life as an English and guidance teacher. Now retired, Douglas continues to reside in Scotland where he writes in his spare time. Blue Postcards was longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2021. His short fiction has appeared in various publications including Northwords Now, New Writing Scotland, Aesthetica, The Fiction Desk and the Irish Literary Review, and has won competitions including Fish and the Neil Gunn Prize.