Imagine a world where your position in society depended on what bit of the colour spectrum you could see. This is the world inhabited by Eddie Russett (red, middle-level) and Jane Grey (monochromatic, lowest in society). Eddie and Jane must negotiate the delicate Chromatic politics of society to find out what the 'Something that Happened' actually was, how society got to be this way, and crucially, is there Somewhere Else beyond their borders - and if there is, could there be Someone Else, too, someone whose unseen hand has been guiding the fortunes and misfortunes of the nation for the past 500 years?It's a tale of a young couple's thirst for justice and answers in an implacably rigid society, where the prisoners are also the guards, and cages of convention bind the citizens to only one way of thinking - or suffer the consequences. . ..
Imagine a world where your position in society depended on what bit of the colour spectrum you could see. This is the world inhabited by Eddie Russett (red, middle-level) and Jane Grey (monochromatic, lowest in society). Eddie and Jane must negotiate the delicate Chromatic politics of society to find out what the 'Something that Happened' actually was, how society got to be this way, and crucially, is there Somewhere Else beyond their borders - and if there is, could there be Someone Else, too, someone whose unseen hand has been guiding the fortunes and misfortunes of the nation for the past 500 years?It's a tale of a young couple's thirst for justice and answers in an implacably rigid society, where the prisoners are also the guards, and cages of convention bind the citizens to only one way of thinking - or suffer the consequences. . ..
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Shades of Grey
Shades of Grey
2 books in catalog
Combining satire, literary homage, and speculative world-building, comic fantasy and alternate history fiction gained a distinct voice in 2001 with the release of The Eyre Affair. British writer Jasper Fforde established his reputation through this inventive debut novel, which introduced literary detective Thursday Next to readers and landed on the New York Times bestseller list.
Born in London on January 11, 1961, Fforde spent two decades working in the film industry prior to his career as a full-time novelist. His behind-the-scenes film work included positions as a focus puller and first assistant cameraman on major cinematic productions such as GoldenEye, The Saint, and The Mask of Zorro, alongside camera operator and cinematographer roles on several independent films. Drawing on his creative interests, he transitioned to writing and achieved commercial success when his debut novel was published in 2001. Fforde later settled in Wales, where he continues to write his long-running book series and standalone novels. In 2004, he was awarded the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Writing for his novel The Well of Lost Plots.
Fforde's fiction is characterized by absurdist humor, playful metafiction, literary puns, and intricate alternate-reality settings where literature and societal rules operate under bizarre physical laws. His narratives frequently blend detective mystery tropes with science fiction and fantasy, questioning the boundary between fictional worlds and reality. Beyond literary homage, his work explores themes of bureaucratic absurdities, social engineering, and environmental extremes, as seen in Early Riser, set in a world where humanity hibernates through winter, and Red Side Story, which continues his exploration of color-stratified dystopian societies following Shades of Grey.
2 books in catalog
Combining satire, literary homage, and speculative world-building, comic fantasy and alternate history fiction gained a distinct voice in 2001 with the release of The Eyre Affair. British writer Jasper Fforde established his reputation through this inventive debut novel, which introduced literary detective Thursday Next to readers and landed on the New York Times bestseller list.
Born in London on January 11, 1961, Fforde spent two decades working in the film industry prior to his career as a full-time novelist. His behind-the-scenes film work included positions as a focus puller and first assistant cameraman on major cinematic productions such as GoldenEye, The Saint, and The Mask of Zorro, alongside camera operator and cinematographer roles on several independent films. Drawing on his creative interests, he transitioned to writing and achieved commercial success when his debut novel was published in 2001. Fforde later settled in Wales, where he continues to write his long-running book series and standalone novels. In 2004, he was awarded the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Writing for his novel The Well of Lost Plots.
Fforde's fiction is characterized by absurdist humor, playful metafiction, literary puns, and intricate alternate-reality settings where literature and societal rules operate under bizarre physical laws. His narratives frequently blend detective mystery tropes with science fiction and fantasy, questioning the boundary between fictional worlds and reality. Beyond literary homage, his work explores themes of bureaucratic absurdities, social engineering, and environmental extremes, as seen in Early Riser, set in a world where humanity hibernates through winter, and Red Side Story, which continues his exploration of color-stratified dystopian societies following Shades of Grey.
