The scent of colors
The scent of colors (English original title: Beyond Indigo or The Color of Love ) is a novel by the English-Indian author Preethi Nair . It was published in 2004 by HarperCollins Publishers, London . The German translation is by Karin Dufner and was published by Knaur Verlag in 2007 .
content
Nina Savani longs for a point of light in her meager life in London. She does everything to meet the expectations of her Indian parents and renounces all of her dreams. Day after day, she goes to the law firm where she represents artists as a lawyer - at least her wish was not lost here, because Nina actually wants to be a painter. As fate would have it, one day she had a nervous breakdown and quit her job. But this news would kill her traditional parents, so Nina decides to leave her parents' house in the morning as usual, but from now on goes to the Tate Gallery and lets herself be enchanted by Matisse's pictures .
Out of a guilty conscience, Nina allows her mother to arrange a wedding with an Indian named Raj, a stranger to her, and continues her double life . In the meantime, she meets the artist Gina, who gives her her studio for two months and Nina's wildest dreams come true. She keeps the promise she made to her deceased best friend Ki: she paints and can finally be the person she really is.
When she signs a picture with ForUKi (Für dich Ki) and wants to have it framed in a shop, a well-known gallery owner is so enthusiastic about the painting that he really wants to get to know Foruki, the Japanese artist in his opinion. Gradually word of Nina's pictures spread in the art world and she actually invents the Japanese artist Foruki and pretends to be his agent.
Nina meets the gallery owner Michael, with whom she falls in love and now knows neither in nor out of her lying fabric. With the help of her new friends, she decides to do an exhibition for Foruki and only then dedicate herself to her arranged wedding. The exhibition is a complete success, but Michael learns that Nina is engaged and returns to the USA. When her parents find out about their double life, they throw their daughter out of the house and consider her a disgrace.
Nevertheless, Nina does not want to give up her dream and finally wins the Turner Prize, alias Foruki, with her works of art . In doing so, she reveals her true identity and says that Foruki doesn't even exist. Nina becomes famous overnight and her parents proudly take her back into the family. But Nina now knows that she wants to remain an artist and decides to go her own way. Last but not least, even Michael reappears in her life.
criticism
"Nair knows how to authentically express the ambivalent feelings of her protagonist, as she herself once secretly quit her job as a management consultant to write novels." (Monstercritics)
"Nair's novel is easy and funny written." (Allgemeine Zeitung)
"Preethi Nair told a cheerful story about a difficult question: What life is right for me [...] The heart-warming romance of Indian English author Preethi Nair is based on our own experience: She published her first book under a pseudonym." ( Girlfriend )
“This book is a pearl. It is a life-wise and inspiring novel for all those creative people who are currently neglecting their muse. ” (Newcastle Upon Tyne Journal)
Web links
- Official website (English)
- Knaur Verlag: Review (German)
Individual evidence
- ^ "The scent of colors": An Indian woman in conflict. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on: Monstersandcritics.de , May 9, 2007, accessed April 5, 2010.
- ↑ The Scent of Colors - Reviews of the Book. ( Memento of the original from March 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on: Droemer Knaur.de , accessed on April 4, 2010.
