Fugitive Colors: A Novel
Fugitive Colors: A Novel book cover

Fugitive Colors: A Novel

Paperback – April 14, 2015

Price
$16.99
Format
Paperback
Pages
400
Publisher
Arcade Publishing
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-1628725179
Dimensions
6 x 1 x 9 inches
Weight
1.1 pounds

Description

Author Lisa Barr's award-winning debut novel Fugitive Colors , a suspenseful tale of stolen art, love, lust, and revenge on the "eve" of WWII, won the IPPY gold medal for "Literary Fiction 2014"—by the Independent Book Publishers Association. In addition, Fugitive Colors has been optioned for a movie by Hollywood Producer Arthur Sarkissian ( Rush Hour trilogy, While You Were Sleeping ).A journalist for more than 20 years, Lisa served as an editor for the Jerusalem Post for five years, covering Middle East politics, lifestyle, and terrorism in Jerusalem. Among the highlights of her career, Lisa covered the famous "handshake" between the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, the late PLO leader Yasser Arafat, and President Bill Clinton at the White House.Following the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin, Lisa profiled his wife Leah for Vogue magazine, and they maintained a friendship until Mrs. Rabin's death. She later served as managing editor of Moment magazine based in Washington, DC, which was co-founded by Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel. Most recently, she worked as an editor/staff reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, covering lifestyle, sex & relationships, and celebrities. She earned her master's degree from the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University.Lisa is also the creator of the popular website and blog "GIRLilla Warfare: A Mom's Guide to Surviving the Suburban Jungle" which launched in 2012.Her greatest joy is writing while raising her three beautiful daughters, and stealing away for "coffee time" with her husband David Barr. She lives in the Chicago area, with her family, two dogs, and lots of Girl Drama—fodder for her next novel . . .

Features & Highlights

  • Debut Historical Suspense Novel Wins IPPY Award for Best “Literary Fiction 2014”
  • Stolen art, love, lust, deception, and revenge paint the pages of veteran journalist Lisa Barr’s debut novel,
  • Fugitive Colors
  • , an un-put-down-able page-turner.
  • Booklist
  • calls the WWII era novel, "Masterfully conceived and crafted, Barr’s dazzling debut novel has it all: passion and jealousy, intrigue and danger."
  • Fugitive Colors
  • asks the reader: How far would
  • you
  • go for your passion? Would you kill for it? Steal for it? Or go to any length to protect it?Hitler’s War begins with the ruthless destruction of the avant-garde, but there is one young painter who refuses to let this happen. An accidental spy, Julian Klein, an idealistic American artist, leaves his religious upbringing for the artistic freedom of Paris in the early 1930s. Once he arrives in the “City of Light,” he meets a young German artist, Felix von Bredow, whose larger-than-life personality overshadows his inferior artistic ability, and the handsome and gifted artist Rene Levi, whose colossal talent will later serve to destroy him. The trio quickly becomes best friends, inseparable, until two women get in the way—the immensely talented artist Adrienne, Rene’s girlfriend with whom Julian secretly falls in love, and the stunning artist’s model Charlotte, a prostitute-cum-muse, who manages to bring great men to their knees.Artistic and romantic jealousies abound, as the characters play out their passions against the backdrop of the Nazis' rise to power. Felix returns to Berlin, where his father, a blue-blooded Nazi, is instrumental in creating the master plan to destroy Germany’s modern artists, and seeks his son’s help. Bolstered by vengeance, Felix will lure his friends to Germany, an ill-fated move, which will forever change their lives. Twists and turns, destruction and obsession, loss and hope will keep you up at night, as you journey from Chicago to Paris, Berlin to New York. With passionate strokes of captivating prose, Barr proves that while paintings have a canvas, passion has a face—that once exposed, the haunting images will linger . . . long after you have closed the book.The Hollywood Film Festival awarded
  • Fugitive Colors
  • first prize for “Best Unpublished Manuscript” (Opus Magnum Discovery Award). The novel has been optioned for movie development by Hollywood producer Arthur Sarkissian (
  • Rush Hour
  • trilogy,
  • While You Were Sleeping
  • ).Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction—novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a
  • New York Times
  • bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(342)
★★★★
25%
(285)
★★★
15%
(171)
★★
7%
(80)
23%
(263)

Most Helpful Reviews

✓ Verified Purchase

Great read wonderfully written.

This exciting book reveals still another side of the Nazi plan to rid the world of all things, and people, considered "degenerate". It's a superb and very moving book which is impossible to put down. Loved it !
4 people found this helpful
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Lisa Barr’s brilliantly written Fugitive Colors truly spoke to me

Lisa Barr’s brilliantly written Fugitive Colors truly spoke to me. As an avid reader of both historical fiction in general and WW2 genre in particular, I knew from the first few pages that this book was special. The story is feels real and raw. The history is seamlessly integrated into the story. I’m not an historian but the level of detail and research that went into the detail of this book is vast and deep. I think that what spoke to me so profoundly is that the horrific discrimination, witch-hunt mentality and arbitrary, unfounded hate that the characters in the book experienced eight decades ago seems to be happening with increasing velocity today. The themes ring true today and I wish they didn’t! But, there is hope both for the protagonist in Fugitive Colors and for us. Please keep writing in your incredibly rich, thought- provoking way, Lisa Barr! And, thank you for giving me one of the best reads in a very long time!
1 people found this helpful
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Top Summer Read

The plot line of this book is not my usual reading but I won this book in an author giveaway and, because I was in a reading slump, decided to try something out of my norm. What a pleasant surprise! It turned out to be one of my best summer reads.
1 people found this helpful
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Five Stars

Great book!
1 people found this helpful
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Focus on art/ artists and the suppression of both by Nazis.

Interesting story re: artists in Paris and Berlin just before WWII.
1 people found this helpful
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When I finished, I searched for more work from the author, Lisa Barr. Deep but enjoyable tale!

Well written narrative of the lives of three close friends whose lives intertwine just before and during the Nazis' rise to power. The characters interplay was so well done that I felt as though I was in the room, overhearing their conversation. Found it tough to put down and read as quickly as possible. I will go back and read it again, at leisure. This is a book that I will keep in my library to read again every few years.
1 people found this helpful
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Lisa Barr creates spellbinding historical fiction

Author Lisa Barr’s novel of intrigue and politics set during the avant-garde period in Europe is a rich, and passionate portrait. The story centers chiefly around a trio of painters whose lives converge on the eve of the rise of Nazism before WWII. Barr’s characters spin a web of love gone wrong, and right, under clouds that will soon shake the world. Envy, lust and the hunger for power combine in a heart- rending tale. Barr uses her talent for imagery and pace presenting a relentless and epic saga. Like the artists she describes, Barr’s brush is deft with colorful tones ranging from sweet, enduring love, to haunting images of corruption and greed in France and Germany.

The story begins and ends around the central character, Julian Klein, who embarks
on a new life in Paris as a painter, renouncing his past. However, when he finds himself swept up in the fate of other artists- his fate unfolds into a cataclysmic destiny. This is an important novel aside from the sheer prowess of the story because it delves into the tragedy of stolen art and lives, and the evil thugs who both denied the very essence of a movement while appropriating its riches for their own nefarious ends. Lisa Barr succeeds in drawing attention to a tragedy of the human condition whose ramifications are still shuddering through the vaults of high art. This novel is an important and engrossing tale that kept this reader burning a late candle.
1 people found this helpful
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Coming of Age pre WWII

The story begins in 1926 in Chicago with Yakov Klein stealing art books from the library, missing his religious classes, and stealing art supplies. Yakov is the only child of an Orthodox family. When he is not in religious school, he is selling socks in the market place. But really, he is a painter--a no, no in the Orthodox religion.
Today, a woman and children park their cart of potatoes next to his cart of socks. Yakov is interested in her face. He pulls out his Torah and draws the woman's face in the margin. A crowd surrounds him muttering Yakov is committing blasphemy.
Yakov leaves the market, chased by rotton food.
When he gets home, the news is already there and his father if furious.
Yakov decides to leave home.
He takes money from his mother's money jar. Shaves his beard and side-locks, packs his bag and leaves the apartment.
When we next hear of Yakov, it is 1932 and he is Julian who is in Paris to attend the Beaux Arts School.
Julian gets side-tracked by a group of artists at a cafe. He never attents the Beaux Arts. Instead he studies with an artist and his modal along with his new friends: Felix, Rene, and Adrienne. Felix is German; Rene and Adrienne are French.
Life for the foursome is interesting until Felix receives a unexpected visit from his father. Felix must return to Germany.
Felix talks Rene and Julian into going to Germany to study with a famous artist. The modal, Charlotte, goes with them.
Adolph Hitler comes into power in Germany. Rene and Julian are Jews.
This is an intense story: a must-read.
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Great historical fiction

Great book!
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Beautifully written and unforgettable

I adored this story of passion and betrayal among the painters struggling to survive Hitler's ruthless war on art and humanity. Beautifully written and unforgettable.