July 2025: Chris Whitaker’s All The Colors of the Dark

For The Love With Jen Hatmaker Podcast

Jen Hatmaker

Relationships, Society & Culture

4.6 • 6.3K Ratings

🗓️ 1 August 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Chris Whitaker didn’t come to writing the usual way. His path began with a series of harrowing experiences in young adulthood that left him searching for tools to process trauma and find peace. As a boy, he’d found comfort in libraries, and it was there he discovered a book on writing-as-therapy that encouraged him to fictionalize his pain and set stories in places of joy. Writing became a lifeline—and the foundation for the emotionally rich characters that define his work. Chris’ personal story deeply informs his bestselling novels, including We Begin at the End and our July JHBC selection, All the Colors of the Dark, resonating with readers worldwide through their authenticity and heart. Join us as we explore his remarkable journey—from pain to page—and the healing power of storytelling. Thought-provoking Quotes: “I didn't set out to write such a sprawling, massive book. I had a simple, top line pitch and then I began writing it and it evolved into like this just epic book.” – Chris Whitaker “I thought the book's probably not going to fit neatly into a genre because life never does, you know? There might be a crime in it, but it's the least interesting thing in the book. It's going to probably be a coming of age story, definitely a story of friendship, definitely a look at family and first love and, and pirates and beekeepers as well. Obviously.” – Chris Whitaker “I wanted everything to lead somewhere. Everything that you think is a throwaway in the story, every line that seems like it doesn't quite fit, it leads somewhere. The entire story is a network that is leading you towards the answer.” – Chris Whitaker Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Jen’s post about reading All The Colors of the Dark while on a ski trip – http://bit.ly/4kVA5qt We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker - https://amzn.to/4lrONFL Amy Einhorn, Editor - https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/people/article/93078-amy-einhorn-named-fiction-publisher-at-crown.html The Last Child: A Novel by John Hart - https://amzn.to/4nyXcsT Nita Prose, author - https://www.nitaprose.com/ Tall Oaks by Chris Whitaker - https://amzn.to/40dYSOc A Prayer for Owen Meany: A Novel by John Irving - https://amzn.to/4kb8UH9 Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: A Novel by Gabrielled Zevin Guest’s Links: Website - https://sites.prh.com/chriswhitaker Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/chriswhitakerauthor/ Twitter - https://x.com/whittyauthor Connect with Jen!Jen’s Website - https://jenhatmaker.com/ Jen’s Instagram - https://instagram.com/jenhatmakerJen’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/jenHatmaker/ Jen’s Facebook - https://facebook.com/jenhatmakerJen’s YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/JenHatmaker The For the Love Podcast is presented by Audacy. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everybody. Welcome to the For the Love podcast. I think I'm laughing because this interview,
0:19.2	I just did not expect it. I did not expect this to go the way that it went.
0:25.0	And it is like, well, I'm just glad you're here. You're about to like have the best, like, listening
0:33.6	experience. Let me tell you about our guest today. So first of all, this is, this is a show that's hooked into the Jen Hatmaker Book Club. You know, we always interview our
0:43.2	author of the month, whoever, of our book selection, which is like such a special feature
0:50.9	of book club, just to have that sort of up close access, not just to the book,
0:56.7	but to the book's author every single month. It's my favorite thing. And so we had a banger of a book
1:07.1	this month. And I'm sure a bunch of you have read it. It's called All the Colors of the Dark.
1:12.4	It's by Chris Whitaker. And if you follow me on socials, you saw me yammering up, yammering about this
1:18.5	book last, I guess it was like late November. I read this book when we went on my family ski trip
1:26.0	last year. If you guys remember this, and I was reading
1:29.1	it in the back of the car while the kids were driving and I could not put it down. And I'm like putting
1:32.9	it on socials like you guys. I know I'm supposed to be with my family right now. Like having this
1:37.9	big trip, we've been planning for two years, but I want to talk about this book. And so it is,
1:43.0	it is epic. It is a sweeping epic novel.
1:48.3	And so we've got Chris Whitaker today and he is the author. He is a, he wrote another bestseller
1:56.8	called We Begin at the End. And he's just a very specific kind of talent, one who can, it's hard to explain how dramatic
2:11.2	and emotional and memorable his, not just the plot plot is but the characters and the development and all the colors of the dark spans decades and it will grab you by the throat and you will never forget it and that is exactly how it was for me which is why it's in in book club, because I knew 100% we had to have
2:35.4	this in our midst. But what I want to tell you today, and Chris lives in London, or he lives
2:41.9	in the UK, is that, you know, I was so excited to meet him and to talk to him about this book
2:50.5	and the characters
2:51.8	are so unforgettable and the book is unfurred. But what I did not expect was Chris to really talk
	...

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