The Colour of Blood
 First UK edition | |
| Author | Brian Moore |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | political thriller |
| Publisher |
Jonathan Cape (UK) McClelland & Stewart (Canada) Dutton (US) |
Publication date | 1987 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 182 |
| ISBN |
ISBN 0-224-02513-9 ISBN 978-0-224-02513-3 |
| OCLC | 18192603 |
| Preceded by | Black Robe (1985) |
| Followed by | Lies of Silence (1990) |
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.
Clancy Sigal, wriitng 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 was the first novel since his early works set in Belfast in the 1950s in which Moore dealt with the Catholic Church as a contemporary institution: "The problem confronted in The Colour of Blood is how the Church is to live in tandem with the secular authority".[3]
In her biography of Moore, Patricia Craig describes The Colour of Blood as an outcry against extremism, "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. p. 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
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