How to be Luminous is a heart-wrenching story about the aftermath of tragedy and the power of self-belief and love. Harriet Reuter Hapgood's beautiful writing radiates with colour.

When seventeen-year-old Minnie Sloe's mother disappears, so does her ability to see colour. How can young artist Minnie create when all she sees is black-and-white? Will her mysterious ailment – and grief – stop her from following in her mother's footsteps and becoming a famous artist?

Middle child Minnie and her two sisters have always been able to get through anything together – growing up without fathers, living the eccentric artist lifestyle, and riding out their mother's mental highs and lows. But losing their mother irrevocably breaks them, and Minnie wonders if she could lose everything: her family, her future, her first love . . . and maybe even her mind.