Blue Is the Warmest Color
BLUE
IS
THE
WARMEST
COLOR
JULIE MAROH
ARSENAL PULP PRESS
BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDITION © 2013 BY ARSENAL PULP PRESS
FIRST PUBLISHED IN FRENCH AS Le bleu est une couleur chaude BY JULIE MAROH
© 2010 – GLÉNAT EDITIONS
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART OF THIS BOOK MAY BE REPRODUCED IN ANY PART BY ANY MEANS—
GRAPHIC, ELECTRONIC, OR MECHANICAL—WITHOUT THE PRIOR WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE PUBLISHER,
EXCEPT BY A REVIEWER, WHO MAY USE BRIEF EXCERPTS IN A REVIEW, OR IN THE CASE OF
PHOTOCOPYING IN CANADA, A LICENSE FROM ACCESS COPYRIGHT.
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THIS IS A WORK OF FICTION. ANY RESEMBLANCE OF CHARACTERS TO PERSONS EITHER LIVING OR
DECEASED IS PURELY COINCIDENTAL.
TRANSLATION BY IVANKA HAHNENBERGER
BOOK DESIGN BY GERILEE MCBRIDE
LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION:
MAROH, JULIE, 1985-
BLEU EST UNE COULEUR CHAUDE. ENGLISH.
BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR / JULIE MAROH.
TRANSLATION OF: LE BLEU EST UNE COULEUR CHAUDE.
ISSUED IN PRINT AND ELECTRONIC FORMATS.
ISBN 978-1-55152-514-3 (PBK.).--ISBN 978-1-55152-513-6 (EPUB )
1. GRAPHIC NOVELS. 2. LESBIANS--COMIC BOOKS, STRIPS, ETC.
I. TITLE. II. TITLE: BLEU EST UNE COULEUR CHAUDE. ENGLISH.
PN6747.M36B5413 2013
741.5’944
C2013-904195-8
C2013-904196-6
My love,
when you read these
words
I will have left this
world.
5
I won’t repeat here
the things that you
already know, things
I was able to tell
you in my previous
letters or during all
those years I spent
with you.
I want to thank you for your
devotion; the last days at the
hospital would have been a
nightmare had you not been there.
Thanks to you I am
leaving peacefully, and
I could never thank
heaven enough for
having met you.
I asked my mother to leave
you what is most precious to
me on my desk: my diaries.
6
I want you to be the one to keep them. All of my adolescent
memories are in the blue one.
dark blue
sky blue
azure
navy blue
Klein blue
cyan
ultramarine
Blue has become
the warmest color.
I love you, Emma,
you are my life.
7
Signed...
Clementine
October 12th, 1994
Dear Diary, Today was
my birthday. I turned
15, and you were my gift
from Grandma!
I have already tried
many times to keep a
diary but this time I
promise to stick to it!!
8
I am a
sophomore . . .
CLEMENTIIIINE
It did me a lot
of good to leave
the suburbs. And
I’m starting to
meet a lot of
people and make
close friends.
THE MATH PROFESSOR IS
SICK—THAT’S SO EXCELLENT!
YEA, IT’S GREAT…
BUT WE’LL ONLY HAVE AN EXTRA
HOUR TO EAT BEFORE HISTORY,
ANYWAY.
EXACTLY! WE CAN
DIGEST IN PEACE WITHOUT
GETTING CRAMPS FROM
THOSE STUPID EQUATIONS.
9
HEY, CLEM,
THAT SENIOR WHO
KEEPS STARING AT YOU
JUST WALKED BY!
OH
SORRY
I’M REALLY IN
A HURRY, AND I
WASN’T PAYING
ATTENTION…