Caught in an over-vivid world because of her synaesthesia (feelings are experienced as colors), Kitty feels haunted by her "child that never was." As children all around become emblems of hope, longing, and grief, she begins to understand the reasons for her shaky sense of self.

What family mystery makes her four brothers so vague about her mother's life, who died when she was three? Why does Dad splash paint on canvas rather than answer his daughter's questions? On the edges of her dreams, Kitty glimpses the kaleidoscope van that took her sister Dinah away — is it a link to her indistinct childhood?

"Like Booker-winner Monica Ali, British newcomer and Booker finalist Morrall creates an alienated yet immensely appealing heroine. But unlike Ali's protagonist, Kitty Wellington is at home in Britain's culture; it's her spectacularly dysfunctional family and a personal tragedy that bring her grief. Dangerously unstable after a miscarriage and her resulting inability to conceive again, Kitty sees other people and her environment in auras of color. A device brilliantly effective at times, this serves to establish Kitty's febrile, fantastical imagination. For three years, Kitty has lived in a flat next door to her loving, ineffectual husband, whose own problems (a limp; an obsession with order; a fear of unfamiliar places) render him similarly incapable of dealing with the world. But Morrall gradually reveals the real cause of Kitty's anguish: her lack of identity. Brought up helter-skelter by her irascible, eccentric artist father and four older brothers, Kitty has no memory of her mother, who died when she was three. Even in her most depressed moments, however, Kitty has wit and intelligence, even as her childlike impulsiveness and failure to foresee the consequences of her acts lead her to initiate a double kidnapping. Morrall artfully reveals the true story of Kitty's family in a suspenseful plot that unfolds like layers of an onion, meanwhile providing a convincing portrait of a woman striving for emotional survival. Agent, Laura Longrigg. (Oct. 1)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"This finely constructed novel, which was short-listed for the Booker Prize, should please readers of both popular and literary fiction." Library Journal

"[A]n ethereal novel of loss and redemption that is both heartbreaking and beautiful....Characters are brilliantly drawn, the pacing is perfect, and the tone is never maudlin....[A] novel to be savored." Booklist

"A genuinely solid and satisfying work of fiction, skilfully plotted and fielding a cast of fully realised and individualised characters." Sunday Times

"An extremely good first novel: deceptively simple, subtly observed, with a plot that drags you forward like a strong current." Daily Mail

"This novel was shortlisted for the 2003 Booker Prize (and should have won)." Nancy Pearl, author of Book Lust

"A moving novel about loss, and particularly lost children." The Guardian

"Fresh, frightening, and raw. There's nothing in the least depressing about this nevertheless sad story, certainly nothing remotely sentimental." Margaret Foster

"A heartbreaking and accomplished debut." The Bookseller (starred review)

"Absorbing and sure-footed.... Extremely well written and compulsively readable.... Morrall has written a genuinely solid and satisfying work of fiction, skilfully plotted and fielding a cast of fully realised and individualised characters. More please." Sunday Times (U.K.)

"An extremely good first novel: deceptively simple, subtly observed, with a plot that drags you forward like a strong current." Daily Mail (U.K.)

"A moving novel about loss, and particularly lost children." The Guardian (U.K.)

"We are drawn by Kitty into her unique world as she strives for a sense of self, of belonging.... I defy anyone to read this book slowly. Or to read it once and then just forget it." newBOOKS.mag

"An intense portrait of a woman who cannot remember her own mother and will never be a mother herself.... A real page-turner." Big Issue (U.K.)

"An extraordinary, gripping novel written with no sentimentality. A wonderful piece of writing.... it is astonishing that she has never been published before." Professor John Carey, Chair of the Man Booker Prize

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, this compelling novel takes its title from J.M. Barrie's description of Peter Pan's Neverland and follows the life of Kitty, a woman who, in a sense, has never grown up.

“When is the right time to tell someone they’re not who they think they are?” Caught in an over-vivid world as a result of synaesthesia (a condition in which emotions are seen as colours), Kitty Wellington is tipped off-centre by the loss of a child. And as children all around become emblems of hope and longing and grief, she’s made shockingly aware of the real reasons for her pervasive sense of her own “non-existence.”

What mystery at the heart of Kitty’s family makes her four older brothers so vague about her mother’s life? And why does her artist father splash paint on canvas rather than answer his daughter’s questions? On the edges of her dreams, Kitty glimpses the kaleidoscope hippie van that took her sister Dinah away and wonders how this event may link to the dim corridors of her own childhood, a childhood in which she had no tangible sense of her mother.

This compelling novel is threaded through with a dark humour and resonates with universal truths as it tells of identity struggles in a large family, the sadness of lost children, the approach of breakdown and desperation – and the optimism of an eccentric, loving marriage. Skilful, unsentimental, fresh, and original, Astonishing Splashes of Colour is a sparkling debut by a writer of exceptional talent.

Booker finalist Astonishing Splashes of Colourtakes its title from J. M. Barrie's description of Peter Pan's Neverland. It follows the life of Kitty, a woman who, in a sense, has never grown up. She lives an improvised life reviewing children's books, visiting her husband who lives in the apartment next door, and fostering a growing obsession to replace her lost child.

Kitty's strong, appealing personality drives this novel, as she relates her story in a jumbled state of consciousness. Her moods swing dramatically from high to low and are illuminated by an unusual ability to interpret people and emotions through colour. Kitty struggles to uncover the secrets of her childhood from her father and brothers, but their revelations threaten to overwhelm her tenuous hold on reality, leaving the reader feeling both sympathetic and horrified with her impetuous journey into madness. Skillful, unsentimental, fresh, and original, this is a sparkling debut by a writer of exceptional talent.

Clare Morrall's first novel, Astonishing Splashes of Colour, was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize. She is a music teacher with two grown children. She lives in Birmingham, England.