First Gray, Then White, Then Blue

Margriet de Moor’s prizewinning first novel, First Gray, Then White, Then Blue, is at once a powerful mystery about why a husband would murder his wife, and a penetrating investigation of the overwhelming force of obsessive love.

Magda in life—no less than Magda in death—was an enigma. A free spirit, alluring but private, loving yet remote, she effected the lives of those around her in ways beyond measure. For her husband Robert, who wanted to possess her, body and soul, what Magda gave him was never enough. He murdered her, leaving her lover to discover her body. As friends gather for her funeral, the mystery of Magda’s life is slowly, tantalizingly, revealed. Who really knew Magda, and what truths has her death revealed?

Told in various points of view, moving from past to present to future, First Gray, Then White,Then Blue is a story of perception, love, and mortality—told with a bewitching power.