Fugitive Blue, Claire’s debut novel, was first published in 2008. It won the Dobbie Award for Women Writers, and was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award.
A new edition of Fugitive Blue has just been published by Hachette. It is available now from Readings or Booktopia.
Praise for Fugitive Blue:
‘This is a beautifully written novel about the restoration of a small renaissance painting by an unknown artist, a painting distinguished by a patch of rare and expensive ultramarine pigment. As a young Melbourne conservator works to restore the fragment, finding her own truths in contemporary life, possible stories of the painter and her tragic life begin to emerge, entwined with the hidden lives of those who might have owned the picture since. Intricately structured, written with originality and poise…Fugitive Blue is a novel about art, the fragility of love and transformation. The fresh and vivid images evoked by Claire Thomas resonate with the reader long after the novel is finished.’
Judges of the Dobbie Award, the Nita B. Kibble Literary Awards for Women Writers
‘From Renaissance Venice through to post-war Australia, Thomas suggests parallel stories about love and loss, female creativity and unrealised desire. Polished and poignant, expressed with incisiveness and resonance, Fugitive Blue doesn’t miss a beat.’
Westerly
‘beautifully done with great imagination.’
Sydney Morning Herald
Listen to Claire discussing Fugitive Blue on Radio National
clairethomaswriter.com 