All the Colour in the World

A Novel

By: CS Richardson

Narrated by: Frank Cox-O'Connell

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2023 GILLER PRIZE • The story of the restorative power of art in one man’s life, set against the sweep of the twentieth century—from Toronto in the ’20s and ’30s, through the killing fields of World War II, to 1960s Sicily.

“Bold and resplendent.”—Nita Prose, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid

“Supremely artful.”—Toronto Star

Henry, born 1916, thin-as-sticks, nearsighted, is an obsessive doodler—copying illustrations from his Boy’s Own magazines. Left in the care of a nurturing, Shakespeare-quoting grandmother, eight-year-old Henry receives as a gift his first set of colouring pencils (and a pocket knife for the sharpening). As he commits these colours to memory—cadmium yellow; burnt ochre; deep scarlet red—a passion for art, colour, and the stories of the great artists takes hold, and becomes Henry’s unique way of seeing the world. It is a passion that will both haunt and sustain him on his journey through the century: from boyhood dreams on a summer beach to the hothouse of art academia and a love cut short by tragedy; from the psychological wounds of war to the redemption of unexpected love.

Projected against a backdrop of iconic masterpieces—from the rich hues of the European masters to the technicolour magic of Hollywood—All the Colour in the World is Henry’s story: part miscellany, part memory palace, exquisitely precise with the emotional sweep of a great modern romance.

©2023 CS Richardson (P)2023 Knopf Canada

Critic reviews

“With stunning restraint and pathos, CS Richardson has given us a portrait of one man’s journey of the soul—across decades and continents, through loss and grief and hope. Both sweeping and minimalist, All the Colour in the World is Woolfian in its brushstrokes. Quiet moments of being are given as much weight as the chaos of war, and notes on the long history of art balance the depiction of one individual life. As much poetry and mosaic as it is a novel, with not a word out of place, this book is a triumph—a masterclass in how to paint an entire world.”—2023 Scotiabank Giller Prize jury

“Spare, elliptical, and supremely artful . . . [All the Colour in the World] studies a man buffeted—and buffeted again—by fateful circumstance. . . . A heady celebration of art, an act and form the author respects in all its facets.”—Toronto Star

“All the Colour in the World will leave readers marveling at how its author says so much with so few words. . . . This novel, so simple and succinct, is a love story, a war story and at least a semester’s worth of an art history course all rolled into one. It is poetic and perceptive, tender, and touching, and a lovely work of art. . . . A beautiful testament to the enduring power and beauty of art and of love.”—Winnipeg Free Press