The Colour of Heaven

by James Runcie

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Mentions
109	2	251,446	(2.97)	2
From the author of THE DISCOVERY OF CHOCOLATE -- a romantic historical quest set in Renaissance Venice and China surrounding the search for ultramarine. THE COLOUR OF HEAVEN is a fictional account of a young man who travelled to what are now Afghanistan and China to discover lapis lazuli, the precious stone that when turned into ultramarine changed the history of painting -- allowing artists to abandon gold as a background and open up depth, landscape and perspective with the most beautiful shade of blue. Along the way, Paolo suffers the torments of unfulfilled love before he returns to his anxious family in Venice, where he also plays a part in the early development of lenses and spectacles… (more)

all members

▾Members

Recently added by

priana, sandikay, MarkDABoon, AngelikaD, GuildfordInstitute, nordie, Pelt2023, BooksPat, Bookbuff1955, dsc73277

▾Tags

▾LibraryThing Recommendations

▾Lists

Books Read in 2016 (4,128)

▾Will you like it?

▾Conversations (About links)

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 2 mentions

▾Member reviews

date ▼ | votes

Showing 2 of 2

Good story, but somehow I didn't quite get it. I think I'm just not philosophical enough for this particular book. I couldn't grasp what the premise was about life and death, although it may just be as simple as you must live your life as if every day is your last.

Well written and fairly easy to read, but as above, I just couldn't grasp some of the concepts. The characters were, however, well defined and quite interesting. (

)

Fluffyblue | Dec 9, 2008 |

I bought this book because of its lovely cover, and because I like historical fiction from the early days of Venice. It was an interesting enough read, but the female characters where anachronistic, and the author made mistakes on historical details. I figure if I can find errors, the book must have more, and the writer loses credibility. (

)

Nickelini | Jun 11, 2008 |

date ▼ | votes

Showing 2 of 2

▾Published reviews

no reviews | add a review

▾Other authors

» Add other authors (1 possible)

▾Series and work relationships

▾Awards and Honors

view history

▾Common Knowledge

You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.

For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.

Canonical title

Original title

Alternative titles

Original publication date

People/Characters

Important places

Important events

Related movies

Epigraph

Dedication

First words

Quotations

Last words

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Original language

Canonical DDC/MDS

Canonical LCC

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

▾Book descriptions

From the author of THE DISCOVERY OF CHOCOLATE -- a romantic historical quest set in Renaissance Venice and China surrounding the search for ultramarine. THE COLOUR OF HEAVEN is a fictional account of a young man who travelled to what are now Afghanistan and China to discover lapis lazuli, the precious stone that when turned into ultramarine changed the history of painting -- allowing artists to abandon gold as a background and open up depth, landscape and perspective with the most beautiful shade of blue. Along the way, Paolo suffers the torments of unfulfilled love before he returns to his anxious family in Venice, where he also plays a part in the early development of lenses and spectacles

▾Library descriptions

No library descriptions found.

▾LibraryThing members' description

Book description

Haiku summary