Shades of Grey - by Jasper Fforde (Paperback)

About the Book

Fforde's latest "New York Times"-bestseller--part social satire, part romance, part revolutionary thriller--about a world where social order and destiny are dictated by the colors one can see.

Book Synopsis

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Thursday Next series comes a "laugh-out-loud funny" (Los Angeles Times) and "brilliantly original" (Booklist, starred review) novel of a man attempting to navigate a color-coded world.

"A rich brew of dystopic fantasy and deadpan goofiness."--The Washington Post

Welcome to Chromatacia, where the Colortocracy rules society through a social hierarchy based on one's limited color perception. In this world, you are what you can see.

Eddie Russet wants to move up. When he and his father relocate to the backwater village of East Carmine, his carefully cultivated plans to leverage his better-than-average red perception and marry into a powerful family are quickly upended. Eddie must content with lethal swans, sneaky Yellows, inviolable rules, an enforced marriage to the hideous Violet deMauve, and a risky friendship with an intriguing Grey named Jane who shows Eddie that the apparent peace of his world is as much an illusion as color itself.

Will Eddie be able to tread the fine line between total conformity--accepting the path, partner, and career delineated by his hue--and his instinctive curiosity that is bound to get him into trouble?

Review Quotes

Praise for Shades of Grey

"A full-bore futuristic sci-fi fantasy, if that's what you call a book that prizes character above techno-wizardry...Laugh-out-loud funny." --Los Angeles Times

"Not to be missed."--The Miami Herald

"Fforde's premise, a world organized by color, sounds shallow and only capable of furnishing enough material for an episode of The Twilight Zone. But in the author's skilled hands, it becomes a sly way to satirize religion and overbearing government, as well as a constant source of amusement. Color us green with envy."--New York Post

"Fforde is an author of immense imagination. Not satisfied with just a few layers of Dickensian jokes and revisions of the physical universe, he creates an archeological treasure trove for readers...The coming-of-age story and manic-pixie-dream-girl romance don't need to be much more than icing on the cake to make Shades of Grey a fancifully satisfying concoction."--The A.V. Club

"Already cult- worshipped for his popular Thursday Next and Nursery Crimes novels (First Among Sequels, etc.) Fforde is something like a contemporary Lewis Carroll or Edward Lear....To dispel a black mood and chase away the blues, this witty novel offers an eye- popping spectrum of remedies."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"This series starter combines the dire warnings of Brave New World and 1984 with the deevolutionary visions of A Canticle for Leibowitz and Riddley Walker....It's all brilliantly original."--Booklist (starred review)

"[An] inventive fantasy...Eddie navigates a vividly imagined landscape whose every facet is steeped in the author's remarkably detailed color scheme."--Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Jasper Fforde spent twenty years in the film business before debuting on the New York Times bestseller list with The Eyre Affair, the first book in the Thursday Next series. He is also the author of Early Riser and The Constant Rabbit; the Nursery Crime Adventures series; the Shades of Grey series; and the Last Dragonslayer series, adapted for television as a movie. He lives in Wales.