Color Me Blue

Ragnhild Yndestad

Description

Color Me Blue is a dystopian novel debating the distinction and growing differences between the western and eastern parts of the world. It is a description, as well as a worst-case scenario of the current refugee crisis, and an examination of modern humanitarian values and beliefs. The world is divided in two: The West and The East. A young woman from The West visits a library and discovers a real book. This is in a modern-day world rotating around screens and social media, where hardcover books have gone extinct. The book turns out to be illegal, and the consequences are immediate: as a punishment, she is sent to The Camps, known only as a terrifying place by the eastern border, where she is forced to uncover a disturbing truth. 1984 meets To Kill a Mockingbird in this dystopian novel.

Informations

• Publié par: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Date de parution: 30 septembre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528966306
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Color Me Blue
Ragnhild Yndestad
Austin Macauley Publishers
2019-09-30
Color Me Blue About the Author About the Book Copyright Information © Acknowledgements Synopsis 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
About the Author
Ragnhild Yndestad (b. 1997) is a young Norwegian author and student based in Oxford. Color Me Blue is her fourth book and first novel in English.
About the Book
Color Me Blue  is a dystopian novel debating the distinction and growing differences between the western and eastern parts of the world. It is a description, as well as a worst-case scenario of the current refugee crisis, and an examination of modern humanitarian values and beliefs.
The world is divided in two: The West and The East. A young woman from The West visits a library and discovers a real book. This is in a modern-day world rotating around screens and social media, where hardcover books have gone extinct. The book turns out to be illegal, and the consequences are immediate: as a punishment, she is sent to The Camps, known only as a terrifying place by the eastern border, where she is forced to uncover a disturbing truth.
1984  meets  To Kill a Mockingbird  in this dystopian novel.
Copyright Information ©
Ragnhild Yndestad (2019)
The right of Ragnhild Yndestad to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781528930499 (Paperback)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2019)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ
Acknowledgements
Of course, a huge thank you to my editors for helping me make this book possible, considering it is my first work in English. Also, a big thank you to friends and family who have given me the encouragement to publish the story and keep writing. And, at last, an enormous thank you to all the volunteers I have worked with in the refugee crisis, for giving me inspiration for this book, and for their tireless hard work on the shores of the Aegean Sea.
Synopsis
Color Me Blue is a dystopian novel debating the distinction and growing differences between the western and eastern parts of the world. It is a description as well as a worst-case scenario of the current refugee crisis, set in the future, and an examination of modern humanitarian values and beliefs. The novel is set to be an exciting reading experience, also facing an inward psychological view into the main character’s thoughts and feelings as the story proceeds.
A young woman in The West discovers an old book when visiting a museum, and decides to read it. This is in a modern day world rotating around screens and Social Media, with superficial values and relations, and where hardcover books have gone extinct. The book turns out to be illegal, and the consequences are immediate. The young woman is sent to The Camps by the eastern border, known only as a terrifying place with inhabitants from the East. She has to face a disturbing truth and is forced to reconsider all her established thoughts and values regarding the lower classes of society.
The story is set to put current, growing prejudices against refugees into a new perspective, through a thrilling and exciting story. It is inspired and influenced by books like 1984 , To Kill a Mockingbird and The Handmaid’s Tale .
1
“Why are they smiling? This place is terrible.”
“Because there’s sunshine today.”
That was one of my first questions when I came to The Camps. It was so absurd. When I got back to my room after that day, I had to write it down, that question, and the answer to it. There were power in those words, I think. I have to look at it sometimes to remember, to keep myself from falling back into that bubble of unrealness that is my home.
It all started with a book. Like all stories, good and bad. I had just turned 20, and one day I woke up with this urge to see a book. A real book. The old kind, not the Kindle, but those with real paper pages, where you can touch the print, smell it, feel it, breathe it. I had, until then, never seen one, only in pictures.
I was lucky to grow up in one of the more cultural cities of The West. One of those that still have museums, art, statues in the streets, and old buildings. Most cities of The West have been modernized, the old houses replaced by post-modernistic ones, with glass walls and geometrical furniture, where the dominating colors are white, black, grey, and cold brown. I think I had an old soul somewhere inside, since I appreciated these things. I enjoyed walking down old streets, and go to museums, even though none of my friends did. So, that was what I did that day. That Day. For me, a day of capital letters. Though I did not know that at the time. It was just any other day, except that strange urge to see a real book. So I went to the museum, catching a bus from the suburbs into town. As usual, no one spoke to each other, not even the passengers sitting next to each other. The bus, made almost entirely of sheer glass, was silent, and the people were staring down into their phones, rating each other safely behind a touchscreen. It did not seem strange to me at the time. After all, I did it too. The ratings, the likes, the followers. The endless circus of sharing. But only the good stuff. The bad stuff we hid deep inside ourselves, and as long as we did not post it on Social Media, it did not exist.
The museum was an old, stone building that looked faintly like a castle. I had to walk up three steep steps to get to the front door, which was massive. Here, there were no security cameras eyeing you, the street outside was deserted, unlike every other crowded street in the world. In a few weeks, months, or maybe even years, going to museums might become cool, and everyone would gather up these steps to take their selfies and their group shots, and put them up for posting for everyone to see. But today was not that day, and I was the only visitor.
I walked in hesitantly, feeling stupid, wondering what on earth I was doing here. If I wanted to read a book, I had my Kindle , I thought. But now I was already inside, and an older woman with a name tag approached me.
“Are you lost, dear?” she asked. “I can tell you the way to the shopping streets, if you want.”
I shook my head.
“No, I came to see the library,” I explained.
It took her a few minutes to hide her surprised, if not shocked, expression.
“It’s just down that hallway and to the left.”
I thanked her and hurried down the direction she pointed.
The library was in a long, low room in the back of the building. It was not very big, and the shelves had more dust than books. Someone had not even bothered to turn on the electricity, so the only light came from the windows, tiny rectangular ones high up on the wall, grey light from another overcast day. It made the room look even more ghost-like, as if I somehow had stepped back in time.
I walked down the rows and rows, looking at the books, letting my fingers slide over their backs and titles, trying to decide which one to take out. Eventually, my hand rested on a smaller one, with the title To Kill a Mockingbird . I had never heard of it before, but I liked how melodious the name sounded, so I took it out and looked at it, held it, sniffed it. It smelled like old paper and was surprisingly real between my hands, hard, touchable. From the back print, I read that the story took place in the southern states of the USA in the 1930s. A lost time and a lost place, long forgotten by most people. But it somehow intrigued me. It felt like a treasure, somehow. I wanted to read it, but I did not think they had it on Kindle, and besides, I wanted to read it like this, like it was intended to be read, not behind cold glass. Until that day, I had never stolen anything in my life. I had never had a reason to. Everything I ever wanted was just a quick download away.
I peeked behind the corner of the bookshelf I was standing by, to see if the old lady was there, but she was not. Then I quickly put the book under my sweater and jacket, feeling the binding against my skin. I folded my arms across my stomach to keep it from sliding out, and hurried back into the street.
2
Over the next few days I became absorbed in the story. It was one of those stories that takes a grip on you from the very first page, when the story seems more real to you than anything else, even your own life. I finished it in just three days, and then I actually re-read it. I had, until then, not re-read anything. Why would I? Most books on Kindle are the thrilling, exciting ones, with a mystery as the main plot, and tons of action. Most modern books were like Netflix shows, only in written form. They did not require much thinking, your eyes simply brushed the pages. When you had read it and now knew the plot, the book lost its grip. To Kill a Mockingbird was different. It was not exciting or thrilling, it was interesting, it was powerful, timeless. Each word fell heavy on my eyes.
So, I was reading this book, one morning, the sunshine fell from a very beautiful direction through the angled windows of the small apartment where I lived. It landed perfectly on the book in my hands, it almost seemed to make it glow. I decided to make a post of it, quickly snapping a photo and choosing the right filter. Hopefully , I thought, people will think it’s cool to read a real book, and they will rate it up. Maybe I wo