The Future Was Color

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR THE FUTURE WAS COLOR

A LitHub Most Anticipated Title

A Rumpus Most Anticipated Book of the Year 

A LGBTQ Reads Most Anticipated Title of 2024

“If Fellow Travelers has you curious for more in-depth historical fiction on the McCarthy era and the lavender scare, look no further than Patrick Nathan’s new novel, set in 1950s Hollywood.”

—Tiernan Bertrand-Essington, Queerty 

“Patrick Nathan’s The Future Was Color is a sexy, prescient novel about the lengths an artist must go to to protect their career. It’s rare for a novel to be so emotionally gripping and intellectually rigorous, but it comes as no surprise that Nathan pulls it off. The Future Was Color is a love story; it’s a thriller; it’s an essential novel about creating art during war. This book fucks.” 

—Isle McElroy, author of People Collide

“This brisk and delicious novel fearlessly tackles the vast subjects of the human impulse to make art and life in the atomic age. Heady stuff, so worth adding that The Future Was Color is among the sexiest books I’ve read. What more could any reader want?” 

―Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind

“Patrick Nathan's The Future Was Color is a sumptuous novel that captures the class, guilt, art, sex, and politics of 1950's Los Angeles with deft tenderness. Nathan is a master storyteller who navigates the complex world of Hollywood while exposing the darkness beneath the glittering surface. A stunning novel that illuminates an era.” 

—Mark Haber, author of Saint Sebastian’s Abyss

“Like the best of Andrew Holleran and Marguerite Duras, Patrick Nathan's new novel changed how I see the world through its desire, its precision, its porthole to a time and place that may otherwise have been lost. Achingly beautiful, The Future Was Color helps us confront the horrors of our own climate catastrophe by understanding how many times the world has already ended, especially for queer people. In Nathan's view, art is necessary, but the best life is one spent giving and receiving pleasure, and, through pleasure, love.” 

—Joseph Osmundson, author of Virology and Grandview

“Nathan's gripping historical novel reminds us of the power of art in the face of a cruel and uncaring world. This is a fiercely intelligent and serious moral work that every artist should read. I was swept up in this story and didn't want to let it go.”

 —Garrard Conley, author of All the World Beside and Boy Erased

“Clear-sighted and terribly full of love for this doomed world, The Future Was Color is the devastating romance that America needs to recognize it needs. A tremendously beautiful novel of ending after ending in which Patrick Nathan’s elegant prose hums with quiet, precise anguish, reminiscent of Victor Serge and Ali Smith.” 

—Mandy-Suzanne Wong, author of The Box