Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
post
page
product
Want to stay in the loop with latest bookish news and views? Subscribe to HarperBroadcast!

The Blue Book : A Writer's Journal

By Amitava Kumar

 699.00 inclusive of all taxes

  • Amazon

  • Warning: Undefined variable $productid in /var/www/html/harper_staging/wp-content/themes/harpercollins/woocommerce/content-single-product.php on line 399

    Warning: Undefined variable $productid in /var/www/html/harper_staging/wp-content/themes/harpercollins/woocommerce/content-single-product.php on line 407
  • Or from your local bookseller.
We will notify you when the book is released!
Please allow notification and avoid private mode for this feature to work.

About the book

‘In those terrible days of the lockdown during the pandemic, we were all waiting. We were waiting for things to be all right. And one day, they will indeed be all right. But the dead will never come back. The businesses that have closed and will not reopen; the dreams dashed; the families and relationships that could not withstand the strain. This is why it is important to note down all the changes in our lives. Write them down in a journal. When we do that, we are recording our own history.’

Drawing as a way of keeping a diary, writing down thoughts in a journal as a way of maintaining a historical record – in watercolours and also in words.

These were resources that Amitava Kumar had been using even before the pandemic arrived. But the task gained urgency just when he felt most isolated and afraid. The Blue Book is a writer’s artistic response to our present world: one that has bestowed upon us countless deaths from a virus, a flood of fake news, but also love in the face of loss, travels through diverse landscapes, and – if we care to notice – visions of blazing beauty.

From one of the acclaimed and accomplished authors of our time, this writer’s journal is a panoramic portrait of the experience, both individual and collective, of the pandemic.

‘To mull over a beautiful line while looking upon a beautiful painting is the sublime pleasure offered by Amitava Kumar’s The Blue Book. This painted diary is a collage of the personal and the political, of terrifying news, the fleeting seasons, everyday pleasures, precious conversations, families and friendships-and on every page, the solace of art.’ — KIRAN DESAI

‘A lovely homage to–and extension of–the tradition of writer-artists such as John Berger.’ — GEOFF DYER

‘It’s not good to read another person’s diary. But Amitava Kumar makes the experience so intimate in The Blue Book that you don’t feel guilty. You feel like it is your own.’ — GULZAR

Pages: 176

Available in: Paperback

Language: English

Amitava Kumar

Amitava Kumar is the author of several books of fiction and non-fiction. His work has appeared in Granta, the New York TimesHarper’s, and several other publications. He has been awarded a Guggenheim fellowship and is currently a Cullman Center Fellow at the New York Library. His novel Immigrant, Montana was on the Best of the Year lists at the New Yorker, the New York Times, and  Barack Obama’s list of favourite books of 2018. His 2021 novel A Time Outside This Time was described by the New Yorker as a ‘shimmering assault on the Zeitgeist’. The Blue Book: A Writer’s Journal, published by HarperCollins in 2022, met with a very positive response from readers and critics alike. My Beloved Life, his latest novel, will be out soon. Kumar is professor of English at Vassar College in upstate New York.

Read More

To mull over a beautiful line while looking upon a beautiful painting is the sublime pleasure offered by Amitava Kumar’s The Blue Book. This painted diary is a collage of the personal and the political, of terrifying news, the fleeting seasons, everyday pleasures, precious conversations, families and friendships – and on every page, the solace of art. - KIRAN DESAI

A lovely homage to – and extension of – the tradition of writer-artists such as John Berger. - GEOFF DYER

It’s not good to read another person’s diary. But Amitava Kumar makes the experience so intimate in The Blue Book that you don’t feel guilty. You feel like it is your own. - GULZAR

Activity Sheet

On The blog

Amitava Kumar’s Five Favourite Drawing Books

Read more

Books by Amitava Kumar

Recommended for You