A charming and elegant novella in 500 postcard-sized paragraphs, each mentioning the word blue and featuring a blue object. Set in post WW2 Paris, it is not a properly a historical novel but it parly deals with the aftermath of the Nazi occupation. Blue is a thread that runs through the text, weaving a story that connects three narrative strands in a meaningful way. 

We find a well-researched fictionalised account of Yves Klein’s career, his fascination with blue as the colour of spirituality and transcendence, his attempts to attain a stable, permanent blue that would not degrade (the famous Yves Klein Blue). This is a fascinating subplot, where Bruton shows Klein the man, the glamour, the gossip, the greatness and the white noise of life. 

There are also those with little agency such as Henri, a Jewish tailor who counted Klein among his customers. He also holds on to a blue thread, the Tekhelet from Jewish culture associated with holiness. The two stories run eerily parallel, from their artistry to key moments. The correspondences make for an engaging, stimulating read that constantly generates new insights: namely, how we choose specific events over others, we memorialise beautiful lies and rewrite the past, the problem being that at times we choose to erase tragic histories and truths that should be remembered. And this is a timely issue. 

A beautiful novella about memory, permanence, trauma, erasure and history. The writing is beautiful and evocative, giving the idea of old postcards.The surreal resurfacing of threads and objects throughout the text is delightfully fascinating. Experimental but not difficult or convoluted, the division in short alternating paragraphs makes for a propulsive read. Well crafted and accomplished.