Mood Indigo

(Paperback, Main - Serpent's Tail Classics)

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Description

'A mad, moving, beautiful novel' Independent

The world of Mood Indigo is a stained-glass cartoon kind of a place, where the piano dispenses cocktails, the kitchen mice dance to the sound of sunbeams, and the air is three parts jazz. Colin is a wealthy young aristocrat with a big heart. The instant he sees Chloe, bass drums thump inside his shirt, and soon the two are married. Typically generous, Colin gives a quarter of his fortune to his best friend Chick so he can marry Chloe's friend Alyssum.

But a lily grows in Chloe's lung, and Colin must spend his remaining fortune on the only available treatment: surrounding her daily with fresh flowers. Chick squanders his share of Colin's money on rare books and it is not long before the friends are forced to sacrifice their carefree lives to soul-crushing work.

A surreal cult classic that continues to inspire and endure, Mood Indigo is an animated and delightful satire.

Reviews

'Your heart will be broken. You will be confused and confounded. You will laugh aloud. And at least for a time, however hard you try, your own world will refuse to be what you think it is' - LA Times

'The most heartbreakingly poignant modern love story ever written' - Raymond Queneau

'A rare example of Gallic magical realism' - New Statesman

Author Bio

Boris Vian (1920-59) was a French writer, poet, musician, singer, translator, critic, actor, inventor and engineer. Best remembered for L'Ecume des jours (translated into English by Stanley Chapman as Froth on the Daydream and renamed Mood Indigo to tie in with the film), Vian's work is characterised by the dazzling wordplay and surreal plots which made him a cult figure in 1960s France and beyond.